home income tax software

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

i was wondering what software those of you that do your taxes at home use, and how you like it. I've been using Turbo Tax, but am not completely satisfied with it and was wondering what you use.
Thanks

[Rudi]

John:

I use Intuit's Qucik Tax. I think they market a US version. We have been using Quick Tax for years - since 1998 at least. Tried Turbo and got rid of it. Tried another one and got rid of that one. With Quick Tax, it is easy as 1-2-3. Any you thought a W-2 was hard -- come to Canada

Hmmmm. looks like Intuit also makes Turbo-Tax..... Quick Tax is much better...

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Thanks rudi. Actually the W2 is not that difficult, it's the ohter incomes that can be a killer. LOL

[Jim Becker]

I have been using TurboTax for a long time. I wasn't totally happy with it either and decided to try something else. This was for tax year 2002 and I tried TaxCut, which seemed to be about the only major alternative at the time.

WHAT A MISTAKE THAT WAS!!!!

TaxCut is the package peddled by H&R Block. I should have known not to expect much. The program was buggy and hard to use. As I recall, I had to switch over to basic "forms mode" for a lot of what I needed to do. I was afraid I was going to have to go out at the last minute and find a copy of Turbotax to get my taxes done.

This piece of &*% was also bundled with a copy of Kiplinger's "Home and Business Attorney" which I thought would be a source of some forms I was using at the time. I never was able to use that turkey. I don't remember whether it crashed when I tried to load it or when I tried to run it. In either case, I never did get anything useful out of it. Some web searches at the time revealed that others had run into the same problem and not been able to get it resolved. So I just quit messing with it.

Ever since, I have stuck with TurboTax. By the way, I use the "basic" edition. I haven't seen any real need for the bells and whistles of the fancier editions.

[beaconlight]

If you are doing a simple tax or even Estate or Trust forms I find that you can download them from the IRS and type in what you need and save them on your computer. You had to do the form on line and print it a couple of years back. Now they come with rights in Acrobat. I found that means you can down load the form on to your computer and fill it in bit by bit as you have the info saving what you have done and adding what else is necessary later. I have run an Excell sheet with the numbers in it in an other window and do the required Math in Excell. Not as easy as Turbo but this is for stuff Turbo doesn't cover. I have to do an ammended 1041 for an Estate that will result in Net Operating Loss (NOL) for 2003.which will mean carring the loss back to 2001 & 2002 = carry forward to 2004 & 2005 and K1 to bring the unrealized loss to the beneficiary's or Heirs bewcause of the size of it. All the forms are on line and down loadable with rights. If it sounds like a bunch of stuff, to work with, You are right but it is available.

Bill

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Due to the suggestions of everyone here, plus some others I talked too I decided to go ahead and get turboTax, even though all the stores are flooded with Tax Cut, and it is $10 cheaper. I purchased it at Office Nax, and when I got home there was a receipt for a $20 mail in rebate form Office Max (not Intuit) in the bag with the receipts. good on purchases before Feb, 07, 2006. guess I done good this time.