while this may be a good price on TurboTax, it's not a good product. Intuit lobbyists are the reason our tax code is so complicated. There are plenty of alternatives out there that are free, including the IRS. Don't reward Intuit for making things complicated.
If you're filing with Turbotax come hell or high water, this is a good deal.
Always use caution when providing your financial information to an online service provider. It is recommended to use only trusted sources, such as IRS.gov, for these types of services.
Note also that this does not address your state filing requirements. Check with your state for local options, as some states do offer free services.
States don't charge for e-filing - Intuit does. That's one if the many ways they gouge us.
NY made it illegal to charge for e-filing because it obviously takes more work for them to process paper. I'm shocked they're the only ones.
That said, many states offer free e-file directly on their own department of revenue website. Here is a blog post with a list of those states: https://thefinancebuff.com/free-e...irect.html
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
The person I responded to was making it sound like you could stay completely off the internet with a TurboTax file (notice how they mentioned filing by mail), when the reality is you can't.
TurboTax hasn't been able to operate fully offline for over a decade. The first thing it does is force you to connect and update, even if you buy the physical version. Add creating unnecessary landfill waste to Intuit's list of bad behavior.
As for storing data on servers, read more carefully. I mentioned that drafts are stored on every filing services' websites until you file them. There's no service that operates differently. Once you file, the draft gets purged. If security is really a paranoia, it's simple: Don't sit on drafts.
You seem to only be able to think in black and white. There's a middle ground between a fully offline experience and one that's entirely cloud based. Desktop tax software downloads updates from the web, but your personal data is not stored on the web. You may choose to e-file, which transmits your finalized return directly to the IRS via the web, but leaves only the bare minimum online (with the IRS). You could print and mail it in, which might be slightly safer, but the data still ends up on IRS servers eventually. And maybe you expose yourself to someone stealing the paper out of the mail?
Online tax software is 100% online and it keeps your data so that when you go to file next year, you can move some of the data forward (or file an amendment or whatever). This draft idea is nonsense - do you have any evidence to support this? regardless, your personal data is stored in two places - the tax preparers servers and the IRS servers. So it's relatively safer using the desktop software. Personally, I'm not super worried about this, but given the choice, I'd prefer to minimize risk. That said, I don't really want to support Intuit or Block any more, which may force me online.
It's great the IRS has an API! A tax software company should use this to actually innovate! Imagine downloading the transcript and automatically import all of the information that the IRS already has! Answer a handful of questions about things the IRS doesn't know (e.g. donations, business expenses, etc.) and you're done with your taxes in minutes instead of hours! Oh wait, maybe the IRS should do that for you themselves... we've got Intuit & Block to thank for that. It would be more efficient for citizens and the government, but how would Intuit/Block make money?
64 Comments
Your comment cannot be blank.
Featured Comments
That said, there are a number of free filing services endorsed by the IRS that you can use for free. These can be great if you have relatively simple finances. List is available from the IRS here: https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free [irs.gov]
Always use caution when providing your financial information to an online service provider. It is recommended to use only trusted sources, such as IRS.gov, for these types of services.
Note also that this does not address your state filing requirements. Check with your state for local options, as some states do offer free services.
NY made it illegal to charge for e-filing because it obviously takes more work for them to process paper. I'm shocked they're the only ones.
That said, many states offer free e-file directly on their own department of revenue website. Here is a blog post with a list of those states:
https://thefinancebuff.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
The person I responded to was making it sound like you could stay completely off the internet with a TurboTax file (notice how they mentioned filing by mail), when the reality is you can't.
TurboTax hasn't been able to operate fully offline for over a decade. The first thing it does is force you to connect and update, even if you buy the physical version. Add creating unnecessary landfill waste to Intuit's list of bad behavior.
As for storing data on servers, read more carefully. I mentioned that drafts are stored on every filing services' websites until you file them. There's no service that operates differently. Once you file, the draft gets purged. If security is really a paranoia, it's simple: Don't sit on drafts.
Also, why exactly do you assume that I have no knowledge of the IRS API? The IRS makes it very well known that they have an API: https://www.irs.gov/tax-professio...-client-id
Online tax software is 100% online and it keeps your data so that when you go to file next year, you can move some of the data forward (or file an amendment or whatever). This draft idea is nonsense - do you have any evidence to support this? regardless, your personal data is stored in two places - the tax preparers servers and the IRS servers. So it's relatively safer using the desktop software. Personally, I'm not super worried about this, but given the choice, I'd prefer to minimize risk. That said, I don't really want to support Intuit or Block any more, which may force me online.
It's great the IRS has an API! A tax software company should use this to actually innovate! Imagine downloading the transcript and automatically import all of the information that the IRS already has! Answer a handful of questions about things the IRS doesn't know (e.g. donations, business expenses, etc.) and you're done with your taxes in minutes instead of hours! Oh wait, maybe the IRS should do that for you themselves... we've got Intuit & Block to thank for that. It would be more efficient for citizens and the government, but how would Intuit/Block make money?
So you get license code. Can you use license code for more than one Turbo Tax account?
So you get license code. Can you use license code for more than one Turbo Tax account?
No, a license can only be linked to one account. This same account can activate TT on 5 devices.
Btw, I have a few premier license to trade. PM me.