Customer reviews from turbotax.intuit.com
TurboTax Deluxe Federal + E-file + State 2012 - Mac/Windows
Average customer rating
4.6
(60,607 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 60,607 reviews
5 Stars
44,224
4 Stars
13,217
3 Stars
1,945
2 Stars
712
1 Star
509
Customer Reviews for TurboTax Deluxe Federal + E-file + State 2012 - Mac/Windows
Customer Rating
4
Okay
on April 15, 2013
Posted by: Cutter32
I didn't care for the help function very much. I liked how when you hit the help function in the past it used to pop up a window based on where you were on the form. Now it takes you to a website that you then have to conduct a search to get the question you want answered.
What's great about it: Walks you through
What's not so great: Help function
Written by a customer while visiting turbotax.intuit.com
Customer Rating
5
on April 15, 2013
Posted by: Chacho1
It was just as easy as years past---I have always enjoyed the step by step leadership to do my taxes---Thank you for keeping it simple
Written by a customer while visiting turbotax.intuit.com
Customer Rating
3
New User Interface Is Still Needlessly Confusing
on April 15, 2013
Posted by: JMKeynes
TuboTax has fixed some longstanding problems, at least in the CD version, but it has offset those improvements with still other changes that make the interview process needlessly confusing. (And unless your tax return is *extremely* simple—i.e., basically just a version of the Form 1040—or you’re a bona fide tax expert, you should be using the “Interview” option, or you’re risking making serious mistakes.)
Please, please find a core user-interface and stick with it from one year to the next, with as few changes as possible. Right now, every year requires mastering a new set of options, icons, etc. Some other suggestions:
1. Finally—finally!—at least in the Federal version, you only have to opt out of having TurboTax print payment vouchers for quarterly estimated-tax payments just once instead of multiple times! In the past, TurboTax would automatically reset that option to print the vouchers whenever you made changes or revisions to your initial estimate form. (If you made quarterly estimated tax payments the previous year, both the IRS and my state’s tax department already mail you pre-printed vouchers, even if you filed electronically the previous year. So TurboTax’s vouchers are a waste of paper and ink. The only users who need to use TurboTax’s vouchers are those making quarterly payments for the first time and those who lost (or trashed) the vouchers they received by mail.
But #1: they still print the payment voucher for the current year’s taxes unless you can and do deliberately bypass that page when printing your return. (Again, the IRS already mails a preprinted voucher to you.)
But #2: as in previous years, on the “Estimated Tax Payment Options” worksheet, to get TurboTax to compute the estimated quarterly payments for you, you *still* have to select one of the options to print the vouchers in the “Prepare Estimated Tax Payment Vouchers” box, even though checking “no” in the “*Print* Estimated Tax Vouchers” box at the bottom of the page will still prevent the vouchers from printing.
Suggestion: make *not* printing vouchers the default condition, and provide an option to have them printed that users must deliberately select. (Make that option as prominent as you like. I don’t understand TurboTax’s incentive to have you use their vouchers. Maybe it’s a misguided attempt to provide a convenience to users, even though many (most?) don’t need it.)
2. The option to donate to the Presidential Election Campaign should be *much* easier to find. On the paper Form 1040, it’s near the top of p.1 in a highlighted box, but for years TurboTax has buried it very late in the interview among some minor miscellaneous situations that don’t apply to most people. Ironically, the decline in contributions to this fund may partly reflect a wider use of TurboTax!
3. Schedule D was revised last year, and capital gains/losses are now shown on a new, completely separate form (8949). But you’d never know it from TurboTax, especially if you elect the “explore on your own” option instead of using the interview. TurboTax allows you to import data directly from most major brokers and banks (thank you!), but it doesn’t tell you where to find the data in case you want to check it for accuracy before the interview's “review” step, or if you have other types of capital gains/losses to enter manually. The interview should *clearly* identify where the data is located and provide a direct link to it.
4. When you “open” the new Form 8949 (which is the easiest way to review the data on it; see #2), the worksheet window only displays a half-dozen or so transactions initially. If you have more than that, where are they? At the bottom left of the box where the first few transactions are shown, the key word “More” appears in italics, but in the same font and size as the rest of the text in that box. But “More" turns out to be a link that opens a slightly larger window that allows you to scroll through all the transactions on that “page” of the form.
The “More” link should be *prominently highlighted,* e.g. using a colored font, the standard Web indication of links. Admittedly, the IRS’s design of the new form’s pages is confusing enough if your entries require more than 1 page, but for the price we pay TurboTax, they ought to be able to simplify viewing the entries!
A similar problem exists on the worksheets for other forms, e.g., the “Interest Income Smart Worksheet” for Schedule B.
5. Entering interest income from your Form(s) 1099 isn’t intuitive in the Interview. The dialog box displays your interest sources from last year, and in the past, you could enter this year’s data (if applicable) using the “Edit” button. No more. The “Edit” button opens a data-import process with a drop-down list of a very limited number of the largest or best-known financial institutions. If your account isn’t with one of those institutions, the only way to enter your current-year interest income is to delete the old entry and create a new one for this year’s data. This requires you to re-enter the name of your bank, etc. The “edit” option should allow you to do exactly that, even if you can’t import the data from one of the financial institutions on their list. (It seems like last year’s list of financial institutions you could import from was much longer; I was able to import my data without any problems, including from 2 small local credit unions. But not this year!)
6. The search feature added to the dialog box for selecting which forms to print (at least in the Mac version) is a welcome and long-overdue addition, but finding and printing some less-common individual forms and worksheets is still needlessly complicated. You have to use trial-and-error to find which combination of print options you should select in TurboTax’s “print” dialog box. (There was one worksheet I never did figure out how to print—it wasn’t on the drop-down list of forms and worksheets available for printing, and I couldn’t figure out how to print it directly from the screen, at least not without the inconvenience of doing a screen-capture and printing that.)
Overall, a number of features of the user interface simply aren’t intuitive and force the user to waste considerable time hunting around for forms, how to print them, etc. At best, TurboTax rates a grade of “B-“ on user friendliness.
What's great about it: Fixed some problems with past versions, like option not to print vouchers
What's not so great: User interface changes significantly every year & is always confusing
Written by a customer while visiting turbotax.intuit.com
Customer Rating
4
My return
on April 15, 2013
Posted by: Dale57
Used Turbo Tax for many years. Makes doing taxes easy.
What's great about it: easily done
Pros: My job status changed this year (switched jobs, lost a job, got a raise or promotion)
Written by a customer while visiting turbotax.intuit.com
Customer Rating
5
no refund but easy to use
on April 15, 2013
Posted by: jfkdcoach
walks you through each step & gives hints & advice.
What's great about it: walked me through
What's not so great: none
Pros: I moved
Written by a customer while visiting turbotax.intuit.com
Customer Rating
5
Excellent as Always
on April 15, 2013
Posted by: BG666
I have been using this product for years...Ever remember filling out paper forms?...Maybe I am dating myself...At any rate it is great for a novice, intermediate or advanced user...Figures out fairly complicated situations (health care, investments, etc.)...A great product to assist you through the pain of doing your taxes and improves every year!
What's great about it: Ease of Use, Fast, Helpful
What's not so great: More direct help/IRS Info
Pros: My job status changed this year (switched jobs, lost a job, got a raise or promotion), I bought or sold investments
Written by a customer while visiting turbotax.intuit.com
Customer Rating
4
easy
on April 15, 2013
Posted by: JWVC
Turbo Tax has been easy to use from year to year. I like how it takes what you entered last year and automatically inputs it in less values, giving you the opportunity to update or delete which ever the case may be.
What's great about it: Straight forward, Easy
Pros: I had a baby, My job status changed this year (switched jobs, lost a job, got a raise or promotion)
Written by a customer while visiting turbotax.intuit.com
Customer Rating
5
Excellent Product
on April 15, 2013
Posted by: sacbradg
Excellent product walks you thru and I feel you get a very thorough tax review. used this product for last four year very satisfied.
What's great about it: easy to use walk you right thru
What's not so great: none
Written by a customer while visiting turbotax.intuit.com