Tax Act Software

[thomtax]

I just received an ad from Tax Act software. It has me wondering if anyone of you is using it and what you think of it?

LT

[Ross]

I have been using it for over 10 years!

I do approx. 130 returns per year on the side out of my home and have been using TaxAct for over 10 years. It does everything I need to do (including about 12 non-Michigan state returns w/ part year resident status) for a very reasonable price. I get all states and unlimited state and federal e-filing for $559.

It includes client organizers, invoicing, state and federal refund/amount due instruction letters, future year tax planning, prior year comparison, etc. You can also print to a PDF file. I find it very user friendly. The early bird software is available in October and the final version is usually released around January 11th or so. Most states are usually available in mid January. Most of the returns I do are not very complicated, but it does everything I need.

[AJsTax]

I used it for several years,

but it failed me this year. I have to do a lot of married filing separate returns and TaxAct does not handle this. Then when I was trying to efile the wrong file was getting attached in the file to be sent. At least it said it was the joint file, not the MFS return. I gave up on the total lack of customer service, and I tried and tried.
I figured after a while with the extreme cost of their efile that is was just as cheap to use a good program.
If you only do easy returns and never, ever efile you can probably get along fairly reasonable with it.

[taxxcpa]

Tax Act

Tax Act is an excellent program, but the drawbacks are that you need a separate program for 1040, 1065,1120,1120S, 1041 and for each state--or you have to buy a more expensive version that includes all. Also, unless you pay extra, you have to pay for each e-filing. It also does not have all state returns; e.g. the Texas Franchise tax is not available.

I would probably use TaxAct if all I did was 1040s, no state taxes and no e-filing. However, I
use Drake which has the whole works, free e-filing of every type return that I do including W-2s and 1099s and all state returns. Drake probably has some drawbacks, but none that have affected me. Also the customer support is the best in the business.

[thomtax]

Thanks for the replies. I have used Drake for 12 years and am happy with it - have even renewed for next year to get the discount. But when this card came in offering the efile, all states and I looked at the price, it started me wondering. I appreciate the feedback.

LT