I only had 1 joint return to do, so Turbo Tax did what I needed it to do. I'm glad that early purchasers of this product spoke up (loudly) about the issue of paying to print out copies and to do more than 1 return. Luckily, the company listened to the outraged customers and fixed it. A rare occurrence in this day and age. As I mentioned, I only needed to do 1 Federal return so all was well for me. The product seems to get better and easier to use each year. I am able to e-file and do my state return (Indiana) for free through the state of Indiana's Government website so all I needed was this program with the free Federal e-file. Check with you own state to see if your state offers something like that before purchasing this program
TurboTax Deluxe Federal + eFile 2008 [OLD VERSION]
3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars | 108 ratings
Price:
Last update: 08-13-2024
About this item
Prepare and print unlimited federal returns; e-file up to five federal returns (per IRS guidelines) at no additional charge
Includes free federal efile -- receive IRS confirmation and get your refund in as few as 8 days
Everything you need to easily do your tax return--asks easy questions customized to your situation, puts your answers on the correct IRS forms, checks for errors
Searches for more than 350 deductions, including mortgage interest, education, and medical expenses, to get you the biggest refund--guaranteed
TurboTax is the only tax software to include both e-filing and audit support with every federal return
Includes free federal efile -- receive IRS confirmation and get your refund in as few as 8 days
Everything you need to easily do your tax return--asks easy questions customized to your situation, puts your answers on the correct IRS forms, checks for errors
Searches for more than 350 deductions, including mortgage interest, education, and medical expenses, to get you the biggest refund--guaranteed
TurboTax is the only tax software to include both e-filing and audit support with every federal return
Top reviews from the United States
L. Cusick5.0 out of 5 stars
Worked for me
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2009GWBburg4.0 out of 5 stars
Turbo Tax is great but look carefully
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2009
I went online to get my annual copy of TurboTax and saw that the Deluxe Federal plus State was costing about $40 so I clicked on one of the several listed and bought it. When it came time to do my state taxes having completed the federal part I was asked if I wanted to download the state tax forms for roughly $30 dollars extra. I was a bit confused because I thought I had bought it, but when I dug up my Amazon receipt it turns out that the one I clicked on was federal only, and it cost about the same as the ones that included state forms. Ouch! Oh well taxes are never a pleasant task, so I guess my extra $30 payment to Intuit was nothing surprising...
In any case TurboTax is a great way to make your life easier.
In any case TurboTax is a great way to make your life easier.
R. Eye3.0 out of 5 stars
WARNING! this version charged $39.99 for MD state download
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2009
I purchased another TurboTax from Amazon for $49.99 with five free federal e-filings and FREE state download (only one state downloaded free, 2nd different state download cost $$). You still have to pay $19.99 per state tax return you e-file. When I finished my sixth tax return (I was wrong and thought it offered six free federal e-filings), I went through the process, paid the state e-filing fee only to be informed that I had reached the limit. TurboTax downloaded another one for me, but I couldn't transfer the tax data I had already filled out, and I couldn't import it to their online returns since it was 2008 data. TurboTax said I would have to buy another version and do the sixth tax return all over on another computer. I couldn't use my free MD state download or my paid Missouri state download since I had to do it on another computer.
So I purchased this one just to do one tax return and discovered that downloading one state cost $39.99. Since I had already printed out the Missouri state return from my computer, I skimped and only downloaded MD state return and will paper file the Missouri one. I still had one unused state e-filing on my previous TurboTax but was told that the two go hand in hand, so you have to e-file the same federal & state, you can't use an unfiled state e-file on another return.
Bottom line is that original version I purchased (see above link) with the free state is now around $41. This one cost $34.39 + $39.99 for one state = $74.38. Crazy prices - I wish I had purchased the $41 w/free state download and saved myself some bucks!
Also, since there are five people in my home (only 2 returns as yet though) and friends asked me to do their return, TurboTax should have flexibility so that if you exceed the five limit, you can reload more and not have to pay all over again for another software package, another 2nd state download etc. I am going to suggest this to them for next year.
So I purchased this one just to do one tax return and discovered that downloading one state cost $39.99. Since I had already printed out the Missouri state return from my computer, I skimped and only downloaded MD state return and will paper file the Missouri one. I still had one unused state e-filing on my previous TurboTax but was told that the two go hand in hand, so you have to e-file the same federal & state, you can't use an unfiled state e-file on another return.
Bottom line is that original version I purchased (see above link) with the free state is now around $41. This one cost $34.39 + $39.99 for one state = $74.38. Crazy prices - I wish I had purchased the $41 w/free state download and saved myself some bucks!
Also, since there are five people in my home (only 2 returns as yet though) and friends asked me to do their return, TurboTax should have flexibility so that if you exceed the five limit, you can reload more and not have to pay all over again for another software package, another 2nd state download etc. I am going to suggest this to them for next year.
Mark Twain1.0 out of 5 stars
Read this Review by a Tax Attorney!
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2009
[3/12/09 UPDATE: FOR ANYONE WHO DEDUCTS MORTGAGE INTEREST AND IS WONDERING WHETHER AND HOW THEY OWE AMT, PLEASE READ THE COMMENTS ATTACHED TO THIS REVIEW FOR CURRENT STATUS AND INFORMATION REGARDING INTUIT'S HANDLING OF THIS MAJOR SOFTWARE ERROR THAT CAUSES FORM 6251 NOT TO BE GENERATED/FILED AND POSSIBLE UNDERREPORTING OF TAXES OWED.]
* * *
I am an attorney and my wife is a tax attorney, and we have spent hours reverse engineering and confirming TurboTax software problems (with dummy numbers) last night to determine ONCE AGAIN that the brain trust at TurboTax is giving us defective product. I have used TurboTax since 2005 (only for the spread sheet aspects), and, now that the IRS has made free online filing spreadsheet software available regardless of income (check out the new "Fillable Forms" at the IRS Free File website), THIS WILL OFFICIALLY BE THE LAST YEAR I USE TURBOTAX. Hooraahhh! Every year I find numerous errors in their software (from mortgage interest deduction, to carry-overs, to properly completing non-cash charitable donations per IRS requirements, to calculating AMT credits, and now to yet another problem described here), and like many of you guys, every year that I write in about a problem, I get one of their generic, inane replies from some low-level non-attorney who knows nothing about the tax code. Like years past, I spend more time beta-testing their software bugs than actually doing my tax return. This year, I easily computed and input all my data for our 2008 return, but I can not get TurboTax to generate (unless I start overriding everything . . . which can lead to other problems) this year's requisite Form 6251 for the AMT so that I can actually e-file my return. Unlike most people, we do our returns manually per the paper IRS forms, instructions, publications, and tax regs (again my wife is a tax lawyer), and then we input it all in TurboTax to e-file it . . . and like this year, I ALWAYS find major problems in their software. For example, thousands of Americans are claiming a mortgage interest deduction on Schedule A that they are not entitled to due to the way TurboTax incorrectly distinguishes between home equity indebtedness and home acquisition indebtedness in the context of, e.g., refinanced primary mortgages that include a cash-out component, as well as due to the lack of direction in their menus about the need to compute average mortgage balances. TurboTax's interview just generically refers you to the IRS publication(s), which everyone tells me they do not have time to do (they tell me that's why they bought the software to begin with, so that they do NOT have to look at the Pubs, Regs, or Code) . . . even my attorney friends who use Turbo don't refer to the tax Pubs to figure out their average mortgage balances, and say instead that they simply claim everything on their 1098 Mortgage Interest Statements (which is wrong!). TurboTax could easily fix this longstanding gap in their software by hiring a tax attorney and programmer to add the same sort of interview questions and worksheets that are in Publication 936. But for some reason, after years of making this complaint, they still fail to do this. Seperate and aside from this problem, now I see this year, another huge software bug (described below) that makes me wonder how many filers with mortgage interest are not including Form 6251 for the AMT (even if they do not owe AMT, the form must still be attached/e-filed in many cases). As I say to all my friends, if you don't learn the basics of the tax code and check your taxes manually at least somewhat, then you will be in trouble if you solely rely on any version of TurboTax . . . as I have found that TurboTax has done my taxes wrong every year (2005, 2006, 2007, and now 2008). [This is absolutely true. Every year, my wife and I have had to override and/or spend days complaining to Intuit about necessary patches, etc.] Of course, I hope everyone here realizes that all these people that say "TurboTax is Easy and Great" in their 5-star reviews are often the worst type of resources to rely on for an assessment of whether this software is worth your money (and more importantly, time). . . as, how can these cheerleaders possibly be in a position to critique whether the software works correctly if they don't understand what is supposed to happen tax-wise in a given situation? If you read through ALL the reviews, you will often see the most critical reviews coming from people who evidence some tax knowledge on what TurboTax is supposed to do . . . these people seem far more reliable to me. Many of these 5-star reviews can be completely discounted by the fact that they were written by people who never had a CPA or lawyer verify that their alleged "so easy, so simple, so wonderful" tax returns were actually done correctly by the software's interview. As I said above, now that there is no income requirement for completing your return online at the IRS website with their free tax spreadsheet Fillable Forms (brand new option this year!), I will be saying GOODBYE to wasting $30-$60 a year on this software that my wife and I have to beta-test for days. And you can too. Trust me, as an attorney, your best options for your taxes are: (1) learn the tax code just enough so that you know what should happen tax-wise during each set of interview questions (and if you do that, then you can now use the IRS "fillable forms" and e-file for free at the IRS website); or (2) pay a little more and use a CPA or attorney. As your instinct probably tells you, no software program alone is going to magically do this stuff correctly for you; even worse is that it does it wrong after so much wasted time in so many cases. The wasting of so much of one's time to beta-test this product is just outrageous. [And waiting to buy the software is just no good, as, in year's past, I was still receiving patches right up to the filing deadline in April!] Completely unfair that this product continues to dominate the market when the IRS/Treasury should simply do-away with all the lobbying Intuit does here in Washington DC each year, and instead should expand its "fillable forms" with a set of free basic interview questions like Virginia and other states make available online.
As far as the specifics of the problem on the Form 6251 not being done correctly, if you are interested, here is my detailed post about this debacle on a thread on TurboTax's Live Community. [YOU SHOULD ALSO READ THE COMMENTS ATTACHED TO THIS REVIEW FOR MY TAKE AS OF 3/12/09 ON HOW EGREGIOUS THIS ERROR HAS BEEN, AS WELL AS COMMENTARY AND OPINION ON INTUIT'S HANDLING OF IT TO DATE.]
Live Community post follows:
FORM 6251 not being generated!
MAJOR ERROR IN TURBOTAX DELUXE 2008!!
My wife and I are attorneys (she is a tax attorney), and once again your software is saying I do not need to submit a Form 6251 when in fact I am REQUIRED by the Form 6251 Instructions to attach a Form 6251 to my return (even though I do not owe AMT this year, the form must still be generated and attached).
I am required to attach the Form 6251 because, per the Instructions: "The total of Form 6251, lines 9 through 28, is negative and line 32 would be greater than line 35 if you did not take into account lines 9 through 28." In my case, all of our home mortgage interest is deductible under the regular tax this year, because all of our home equity debt (which happens to be used for investment) is less than 100K; thus, we do not need to complete the TurboTax questions (under the regular tax) for Investment Interest Expense (i.e., because we already are claiming all of this interest as home mortgage interest, we can not and do not need to take it again as investment interest expense simply because the proceeds happen to be used for investment). Thus, TurboTax correctly does not generate a Form 4952 for the regular tax.
However, under the AMT regime, I need to enter values on lines 4 and 9 of Form 6251 to add the interest on the home equity debt back into my AMT income and then subtract it out of my AMT income as investment interest expense. I realize this is essentially a wash, but it does not exclude me from the requirement of filing the Form 6251. WHY IS TURBOTAX FAILING TO GENERATE AND E-FILE A FORM 6251 IN THIS CASE? Also, TurboTax should be generating a Form 4952-AMT (for my reference only of course), but IT IS NOT GENERATING ONE EITHER.
Clearly, TurboTax's inquiry can't handle a situation where you are not claiming investment interest expense in the regular tax world (because it all qualifies as home equity debt), but then you need to claim it in the AMT tax world. PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP.
TURBOTAX NEEDS TO GENERATE BOTH THE FORM 6251 AND FORM 4952-AMT IN SITUATIONS LIKE MINE.
Follow-up Message from me to TurboTax programmers:
You guys screwed up! Why do I have to beta-test your software every year!?!?!?
I just sent you a detailed problem about Form 6251 not being generated. It turns out that at the beginning of the AMT questionnaire, there is an error in your Form 6251 worksheet programming. In response to the AMT question "Tell Us About Your Mortgage Interest," if I input a lower value for "Interest Paid on an Eligible Mortgage" (as compared to the home mortgage interest value from my regular tax Schedule A), then your software does not enter any "home mortgage interest adjustment" in the worksheet (and on line 4 of a Form 6251). Thus, no Form 6251 is being generated when in fact it is REQUIRED per the instructions to the Form 6251.
Also, in prior years, there was always a question in TurboTax that would then ask you to adjust for any investment interest expense you might be able to claim under the AMT if any of this above ineligible interest happened to be used for investment (and therefore could be subtracted out on Line 9 of Form 6251).
Shame on you TurboTax. I can't even correctly file my return this year until you fix this. I wonder how many people have already filed their taxes without Form 6251, even though they were required to do so (regardless of whether they owe AMT, the Form 6251 must still be attached in these cases).
* * *
I am an attorney and my wife is a tax attorney, and we have spent hours reverse engineering and confirming TurboTax software problems (with dummy numbers) last night to determine ONCE AGAIN that the brain trust at TurboTax is giving us defective product. I have used TurboTax since 2005 (only for the spread sheet aspects), and, now that the IRS has made free online filing spreadsheet software available regardless of income (check out the new "Fillable Forms" at the IRS Free File website), THIS WILL OFFICIALLY BE THE LAST YEAR I USE TURBOTAX. Hooraahhh! Every year I find numerous errors in their software (from mortgage interest deduction, to carry-overs, to properly completing non-cash charitable donations per IRS requirements, to calculating AMT credits, and now to yet another problem described here), and like many of you guys, every year that I write in about a problem, I get one of their generic, inane replies from some low-level non-attorney who knows nothing about the tax code. Like years past, I spend more time beta-testing their software bugs than actually doing my tax return. This year, I easily computed and input all my data for our 2008 return, but I can not get TurboTax to generate (unless I start overriding everything . . . which can lead to other problems) this year's requisite Form 6251 for the AMT so that I can actually e-file my return. Unlike most people, we do our returns manually per the paper IRS forms, instructions, publications, and tax regs (again my wife is a tax lawyer), and then we input it all in TurboTax to e-file it . . . and like this year, I ALWAYS find major problems in their software. For example, thousands of Americans are claiming a mortgage interest deduction on Schedule A that they are not entitled to due to the way TurboTax incorrectly distinguishes between home equity indebtedness and home acquisition indebtedness in the context of, e.g., refinanced primary mortgages that include a cash-out component, as well as due to the lack of direction in their menus about the need to compute average mortgage balances. TurboTax's interview just generically refers you to the IRS publication(s), which everyone tells me they do not have time to do (they tell me that's why they bought the software to begin with, so that they do NOT have to look at the Pubs, Regs, or Code) . . . even my attorney friends who use Turbo don't refer to the tax Pubs to figure out their average mortgage balances, and say instead that they simply claim everything on their 1098 Mortgage Interest Statements (which is wrong!). TurboTax could easily fix this longstanding gap in their software by hiring a tax attorney and programmer to add the same sort of interview questions and worksheets that are in Publication 936. But for some reason, after years of making this complaint, they still fail to do this. Seperate and aside from this problem, now I see this year, another huge software bug (described below) that makes me wonder how many filers with mortgage interest are not including Form 6251 for the AMT (even if they do not owe AMT, the form must still be attached/e-filed in many cases). As I say to all my friends, if you don't learn the basics of the tax code and check your taxes manually at least somewhat, then you will be in trouble if you solely rely on any version of TurboTax . . . as I have found that TurboTax has done my taxes wrong every year (2005, 2006, 2007, and now 2008). [This is absolutely true. Every year, my wife and I have had to override and/or spend days complaining to Intuit about necessary patches, etc.] Of course, I hope everyone here realizes that all these people that say "TurboTax is Easy and Great" in their 5-star reviews are often the worst type of resources to rely on for an assessment of whether this software is worth your money (and more importantly, time). . . as, how can these cheerleaders possibly be in a position to critique whether the software works correctly if they don't understand what is supposed to happen tax-wise in a given situation? If you read through ALL the reviews, you will often see the most critical reviews coming from people who evidence some tax knowledge on what TurboTax is supposed to do . . . these people seem far more reliable to me. Many of these 5-star reviews can be completely discounted by the fact that they were written by people who never had a CPA or lawyer verify that their alleged "so easy, so simple, so wonderful" tax returns were actually done correctly by the software's interview. As I said above, now that there is no income requirement for completing your return online at the IRS website with their free tax spreadsheet Fillable Forms (brand new option this year!), I will be saying GOODBYE to wasting $30-$60 a year on this software that my wife and I have to beta-test for days. And you can too. Trust me, as an attorney, your best options for your taxes are: (1) learn the tax code just enough so that you know what should happen tax-wise during each set of interview questions (and if you do that, then you can now use the IRS "fillable forms" and e-file for free at the IRS website); or (2) pay a little more and use a CPA or attorney. As your instinct probably tells you, no software program alone is going to magically do this stuff correctly for you; even worse is that it does it wrong after so much wasted time in so many cases. The wasting of so much of one's time to beta-test this product is just outrageous. [And waiting to buy the software is just no good, as, in year's past, I was still receiving patches right up to the filing deadline in April!] Completely unfair that this product continues to dominate the market when the IRS/Treasury should simply do-away with all the lobbying Intuit does here in Washington DC each year, and instead should expand its "fillable forms" with a set of free basic interview questions like Virginia and other states make available online.
As far as the specifics of the problem on the Form 6251 not being done correctly, if you are interested, here is my detailed post about this debacle on a thread on TurboTax's Live Community. [YOU SHOULD ALSO READ THE COMMENTS ATTACHED TO THIS REVIEW FOR MY TAKE AS OF 3/12/09 ON HOW EGREGIOUS THIS ERROR HAS BEEN, AS WELL AS COMMENTARY AND OPINION ON INTUIT'S HANDLING OF IT TO DATE.]
Live Community post follows:
FORM 6251 not being generated!
MAJOR ERROR IN TURBOTAX DELUXE 2008!!
My wife and I are attorneys (she is a tax attorney), and once again your software is saying I do not need to submit a Form 6251 when in fact I am REQUIRED by the Form 6251 Instructions to attach a Form 6251 to my return (even though I do not owe AMT this year, the form must still be generated and attached).
I am required to attach the Form 6251 because, per the Instructions: "The total of Form 6251, lines 9 through 28, is negative and line 32 would be greater than line 35 if you did not take into account lines 9 through 28." In my case, all of our home mortgage interest is deductible under the regular tax this year, because all of our home equity debt (which happens to be used for investment) is less than 100K; thus, we do not need to complete the TurboTax questions (under the regular tax) for Investment Interest Expense (i.e., because we already are claiming all of this interest as home mortgage interest, we can not and do not need to take it again as investment interest expense simply because the proceeds happen to be used for investment). Thus, TurboTax correctly does not generate a Form 4952 for the regular tax.
However, under the AMT regime, I need to enter values on lines 4 and 9 of Form 6251 to add the interest on the home equity debt back into my AMT income and then subtract it out of my AMT income as investment interest expense. I realize this is essentially a wash, but it does not exclude me from the requirement of filing the Form 6251. WHY IS TURBOTAX FAILING TO GENERATE AND E-FILE A FORM 6251 IN THIS CASE? Also, TurboTax should be generating a Form 4952-AMT (for my reference only of course), but IT IS NOT GENERATING ONE EITHER.
Clearly, TurboTax's inquiry can't handle a situation where you are not claiming investment interest expense in the regular tax world (because it all qualifies as home equity debt), but then you need to claim it in the AMT tax world. PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP.
TURBOTAX NEEDS TO GENERATE BOTH THE FORM 6251 AND FORM 4952-AMT IN SITUATIONS LIKE MINE.
Follow-up Message from me to TurboTax programmers:
You guys screwed up! Why do I have to beta-test your software every year!?!?!?
I just sent you a detailed problem about Form 6251 not being generated. It turns out that at the beginning of the AMT questionnaire, there is an error in your Form 6251 worksheet programming. In response to the AMT question "Tell Us About Your Mortgage Interest," if I input a lower value for "Interest Paid on an Eligible Mortgage" (as compared to the home mortgage interest value from my regular tax Schedule A), then your software does not enter any "home mortgage interest adjustment" in the worksheet (and on line 4 of a Form 6251). Thus, no Form 6251 is being generated when in fact it is REQUIRED per the instructions to the Form 6251.
Also, in prior years, there was always a question in TurboTax that would then ask you to adjust for any investment interest expense you might be able to claim under the AMT if any of this above ineligible interest happened to be used for investment (and therefore could be subtracted out on Line 9 of Form 6251).
Shame on you TurboTax. I can't even correctly file my return this year until you fix this. I wonder how many people have already filed their taxes without Form 6251, even though they were required to do so (regardless of whether they owe AMT, the Form 6251 must still be attached in these cases).