tax software opinion

[dalhorn1]

I need to buy new tax software to do my taxes this year. TurboTax or TaxCut?

...here's what I need to claim, deduct, etc...

bought new home
student loan payment
taking advantage of new home buyer credit
minor short-and-long-term capital gains
energy efficiency improvements to said home

any advice on one brand over the other? I've had the family accountant do mine in the past, but he's really gone overboard with his fees this time around...

 

[alden]

I've only used TurboTax, but it is pretty sweet, and very easy. There are professionals that use it, if that helps.

 

[ChazUTX]

I too have always done my own taxes ever since I graduated over 6 years ago and I use Turbo Tax. Great piece of software and very user friendly.

 

[AstroVol]

I buy TurboTax premier for $50 off ebay each year. It handles my investments, rental property, etc. with no problems. Another nice feature is its ability to link with almost any bank or investment house and download your tax info with only a login (not having to enter it manually).

My wife and I both do alright, and she was getting frustrated with how we end up cutting a check at the end of the year, while all of her friends get refunds. I tried to explain to her that it had everything to do with the withholding and nothing to do with TurboTax's shortcomings.

Due to her insistence, in 2005, we did our taxes both on TurboTax and with one of those cheap Tax guys (Liberty, I think) to compare. Let's just say that TurboTax won by a landslide. We would have had to pay twice as much if we had gone with the tax guy. That's not a totally fair comparison, since he was admittedly a discount service, but you get the point. I took the TurboTax return to the discount guy, and he implied going through such a detailed return was out of his scope, and we would need to hire a CPA. He did, however, review the TurboTax return at no cost and said he found no errors.