Thinking about switching to Taxslayer Pro.. Opinions please!

[Bonnie]

Gotta defend Tax Slayer as I love the Software. Have used it for 6 years now from the beginning of my home business. It was recommended by a friend who was using it. I have had some issues over the course of the 6 years, but when I call support, they are quick to fix any problem I have ever had. Most of those issues have been with states as I do multiple states for military personel. I do a 990-T which I'm sure there is not a huge market for and when I first started they did not offer this form in the software. I asked for a few years and was told there just wasn't much demand so they had never created this software. I had resigned myself to always doing this return by hand. To my surprise last year, they had added this to the business package. I was much impressed. Felt they did this just for me. I'm sure others may have needed it to, but it impressed me. Support is great, quick to answer when I call which isn't often and always a help to any issue I have. As for the 1099-R issue there is a question that pops up when you are entering info in the 1099-R that asks was any of this rolled over. I would never just change the amount that is on the 1099-R that was issued. I would answer the question and then enter correct amount that was rolled over.

[geekgirldany]

That said, last time I tried TaxSlayer the thing that most stuck with me was how they used multiple levels of menus to modify settings. I don't remember the exact menus, but for example if you wanted to change a rental from active to non-active you would end up going income -> rental -> general info -> active -> N. Requiring you to go through multiple menus for what should to me be just a checkbox on a worksheet/form.

That is what I found myself. I was trying to decide between TaxSlayer and Drake. TaxSlayer seemed to be cumbersome in that you had to go through multiple menus, answer repetitive questions, etc. When talking to the sales person I pointed this out and how I could force a number in Drake if I had to. They seemed offended and really did not persuade me why I should go with them. So I ended up going with Drake after being with TaxWise for over 14 or so years.

I hope anyone using TaxSlayer does not take what I say the wrong way. But TS was very aggressive in their sales practices even after I did not go with them. I was getting sale calls several times a week for two years. I finally told them to never call me again.

[dtlee]

doug did you get all your $ BACK from Taxslayer or did they charge a "re-stocking" fee like Drake did to me?

It was a deal where I had 30 days to evaluate it and had to change my mind following a very specific procedure within that timeframe or I would not get a full refund. I both faxed and mailed (certified mail) them back the decision so that there could be no question about them receiving it on time even though they told me, "I can give you a few more days to evaluate it if you'd like with the same refund policy."

I had heard of others having problems getting the refund, so I was extremely careful. I had no problems and cannot say there would have been any. They seem like a nice group to do business with.

[luke]

doug

doug did you get all your $ BACK from Taxslayer or did they charge a "re-stocking" fee like Drake did to me?

[David1980]

I don't think changing the taxable amount is really a problem on the 1099-R. IRS Pub 1345 indicates you must enter the TIN and the address from the form into the software but says nothing of other figures and obviously the recommendation to modify taxable amounts/etc... for rollovers is pretty wide spread among the software companies. Never heard of it causing a problem.

That said, last time I tried TaxSlayer the thing that most stuck with me was how they used multiple levels of menus to modify settings. I don't remember the exact menus, but for example if you wanted to change a rental from active to non-active you would end up going income -> rental -> general info -> active -> N. Requiring you to go through multiple menus for what should to me be just a checkbox on a worksheet/form.

[dtlee]

Good? Bad? Otherwise?

If your in IL, did you have any issues printing anything?

Thanks!

Chris

A long story that fits under "otherwise" probably....

A couple of years ago I had planned to switch to TaxSlayer Pro from Drake because Drake had (up to then) insisted that there was no need to accurately transmit a 1099-R to the IRS when there was an indirect rollover (non-trustee-to-trustee). Drake insisted it was okay to just change the box 2a taxable amount to whatever you pleased and e-file it that way so that the IRS would see that the 1099-R reported the distribution as only partially taxable and not question the rollover. After six years of arguing with them and using convoluted and error-prone workarounds (I actually lost a client due to an error I made after splitting a return and not redoing the workarounds properly), I decided to move to TaxSlayer Pro due to the rave reviews for their support.

I started testing TaxSlayer Pro and lo and behold, they did the exact same thing, but they could not even recommend a convoluted error-prone workaround to properly transmit a 1099-R when the rollover was done by the client after receiving the funds. They could not understand why I wanted a refund and did not want to switch from Drake for a product that exhibited the exact same problem that was #1 on my list of reasons for leaving.

Drake has since corrected this scenario, but I was told by TaxSlayer that they have been doing it this way for 25 years and had no intention of changing it (Drake had said the same thing but used the number "30" rather than "25"). TaxSlayer Pro might have also fixed this, but I have not retested them.

The test scenario is easy to recreate. The situation is you have a client with a $20,000 distribution which is fully taxable so box 1 and 2a both have $20,000 which is a code 1 (premature) distribution and the client had $5,000 in withholding which they ultimately forget to roll over. Thus you have a $20,000 distribution of which $5,000 will be taxable and $15,000 will be rolled over with $5,000 in withholding.

The problem I was seeing was that the way the software is intended to work, it would result in the 1099-R being transmitted electronically with field 0110 of the 1099-R (the total distribution) equal to 20000 and field 0120 of the 1099-R (the taxable amount from 2a) as 5000. This is incorrect since we as EROs are required to enter significant dollar fields exactly as shown on the document we receive from the issuer and they are to be transmitted to the IRS the same way. Since it is not easy to check what will be efiled in any product, we need to be able to trust our software to transmit these values correctly.

I am not saying that TaxSlayer Pro does not, but both Drake and TaxSlayer Pro did not for the 2009 tax year (and perhaps 25-30 years prior) though Drake has since corrected this error.

I was quite disappointed that I had to stay with Drake. I thought TaxSlayer Pro would have been an okay to use.

[spanel]

Good? Bad? Otherwise?

If your in IL, did you have any issues printing anything?


Thanks!

Chris