TurboTax is the way to go! I love it. Couldn’t be easier. It’s incredibly user friendly and set up in an easy to follow format. We do line item deductions. For example, my husband is a construction worker and we deduct his work clothes and work boots. For medical, we deduct co-pays, out of pocket, the deductible and even over the counter items that we need; medicine for allergies, GERD, diabetes supplies, etc… so, Married with children and own our home, file jointly. I’ve been doing our taxes for 8 years now on TurboTax. I do pay for the premium services because the services offered contain legal representation in case I make a mistake. In fact they will do your taxes for you with that package. Prior to TurboTax, we had an accountant do our taxes. We moved to our current home 8 years ago and rather than find a new accountant, I gave TurboTax a try. It’s been smooth sailing ever since. I recommend it to everyone. We get our refund in 3 weeks. After the holidays, I count on that money like most of us. It goes right into my bank account. Finally, my favorite part- they retain all of your personal info including what you claimed the year before. They import all of your W2s, 1099’s, etc. They also determine the way for you to file to get the best refund. (Married, jointly- married, separately, I highly recommend TurboTax. I’ve learned so much by doing my taxes myself. With the ease of using TurboTax, I feel that I’ve gained a real world skill and an understanding I was oblivious to in the past. Good Luck in what ever way you file!

The first hiccup I ran into is on the page where you review the cart of the products you’re about to purchase. On that page an “optional” $44 premium item shows along with a ‘Remove’ button that doesn’t work (selecting it takes you to a blank screen that forces you to rest the app). So I just bit the bullet and decided I would keep it except—there was no way to continue to a checkout page! Apparently, a “See payment options” button is supposed to appear under the list of items, but it wasn’t until after 4-5 attempts to exit the page and return. Then when I select that button, I’m able to purchase the TurboTax products successfully, because of course that part isn’t broken—plus remember the extra $44 I got ripped out of. However, the federal e-file credit card form doesn’t save my correct billing information, so it wasn’t a shock that following the e-file loading page it tells me the payment didn’t go through, that I should retry (which I did a few times), and to contact customer service if it doesn’t work. The problem is—THE APP DOESN’T PROVIDE A WAY TO CONTACT CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! No button. No email. No phone number. No anything! That error page just tells you to contact customer service and that’s it. So let me get this straight: everything is smooth when you want the users to pay for the product (except for when they to remove a line item they don’t need or wish to pay for), but somehow the engineering and UX prowess is suddenly missing when it comes to the part where the users want to actually pay their taxes?

I have used turbo tax before, and this is not a review on the app itself, but the service. Why did turbo tax only begin making the service free after many competitors did. I probably paid a minimum of 10% of my return, year to year, with this platform until the competition began charging nothing. Now it seems like thats an advertising perk for turbo tax. They act like they didn't just charge people with student loans or other extenuating circumstances a huge fee on returns when it was marketed as a “free service,” until right after you finish filing and then, “oh we actually need to charge because, xyz.” Seems to me like you were fine to rake in the rewards until you got called on it then you change your ways and act like you’re doing us a favor by not charging us for something we should be able to do ourselves. Because of Inuit’s lobbying and intrusion into policy regarding tax returns, turbo tax basically dominated the market for years, and now after feeling the pain of the competition taking business away, they decide to do what’s right for consumers. I’m sure you guys will do fine in the future, and are doing fine now, but people will not keep accepting this when there are equivalent alternatives that do not charge, or charge substantially less for equivalent services. For those that see this and are being charged by turbo tax for, “advanced filing options,” or whatever they call it, I would seek alternative filing platforms. They are out there.

The initial filing and app seems easy but it’s not what it seems, I’m new to TurboTax and decided to use it because of a friend who use to use it. I wish I would have researched and checked the ratings and issues this year before I filed my taxes with TurboTax and the credit karma scam. This miss information I received has really ruined my confidence in TurboTax. I have been bounced back and forth like a ping pong ball between credit karma and TurboTax in regard to the refund advance and credit karma checking account that you are forced to except under the impression I was receiving a service that was not rendered. Now I am stuck receiving my refund to a checking account that I am terrified to use. And afraid to change a I don’t want anymore delays in receiving my refund. The representatives are not educated in the process and will shift blame and offer alternative numbers that only direct you back to them. To out of the ten reps I talked to actually made me feel like their intentions were pure and empathetic. And contracting credit karma in what ever country that it may be in is so frustrating not only because the language barrier but the lack on knowledge and consideration is atrocious. I don’t usually write reviews but I’m so upset that they charge all there fees for additional services to make you feel like they have your best interests in mind. I’m not the only one who has been through this and if it helps someone else avoid the trickery that I felt then it’s worth it