Turbo Tax Comments

[Jiggers]

Brilliant Idea

Why not have the IRS audit all Turbo Tax and other self-prepared tax returns! I guarantee they would find lots of errors, lots of adjustments, and lots of money. However, they don't have enough agents to do that!

I also question if their agents could catch the errors.

I do the tax returns for several IRS "examiners". Not really complicated. I am surprised that they can't do them.

[Deltax]

i HAD A CLIENT THAT CAME OVER TODAY FROM H&R BLOCK AND HAD A INHOME OFFICE DEDUCTION FOR A SCH C. THEY GAVE THEM TWICE THE MORTGAGE INTEREST, ONCE ON 8829 AND THEN RE-ENTERED IT ON SCH A . THEY WERE GETTING A 5000 DOLLAR REFUND. WHEN i DID THE RETURN THE REFUND WAS LESS. CLIENT ASKED " HOW COME THE DIFFERENCE?" mY RESPONSE WAS
THEY GAURANTEE THE BIGGEST REFUND I GUARANTEE THE MOST ACCURATE. SHE LEFT MY OFFICE AND WENT BACK TO BLOCK. AFTER I EXPLAINED THE DIFFERENCE SHE KINDLY TOLD ME THAT SHE THOUGHT BLOCK WAS RIGHT.
HELL DEDUCTING MORTAGE INTEREST AND PROPERTY TAXES TWICE NOW THAT A GREAT IDEA. I WISH I WOULD OF THOUGHT ABOUT THATFIRST. THEN I COULD PROMISE THE BIGGEST REFUND.

I GUESS THE OLD SAYING IS TRUE " STUPID PEOPLE ARE MENT TO BE TOGETHER"

Going back to H & R Block was the best thing to do. All she has to do is buy their peace of mind policy and if she ever gets an audit H & R Block will pay the taxes due plus interest and penalty.

[Unregistered]

Yeah we all know that H&R block will stand behind that . I ask this question, "Why in god's name would you want ot go back to a company that could not get it right the first time?" These are the people you wan to represent you in an audit.

And to the person who took a shot at my ALL CAPS. Look I type my returns out in all caps , I finished a return and then wanted to type a little msg, I may have forgotten to take the caps off, but I have never made stupid errors like entering in deductions twice, I leave that to guys like you!

[Snaggletooth]

Like I said before...

...John Smith goes to a CPA and gets a refund of $300.
...He goes to an EA and gets a refund of $320.
...Then he goes to Turbo Tax, or an HRB first-year preparer, and gets
a refund of $700.

Guess who is the best preparer as far as he is concerned?

[Black Bart]

Woe unto thee,

Fact is MOST people have NO use for others to do their taxes. We need to dump the personal income tax and get to something sensible.

thou blasphemer.

BB, xiv 9.

[SueBaby]

Yeah we all know that H&R block will stand behind that . I ask this question, "Why in god's name would you want ot go back to a company that could not get it right the first time?" These are the people you wan to represent you in an audit.

And to the person who took a shot at my ALL CAPS. Look I type my returns out in all caps , I finished a return and then wanted to type a little msg, I may have forgotten to take the caps off, but I have never made stupid errors like entering in deductions twice, I leave that to guys like you!

Ouuuuuuch!!! That hurt. Who is you. ME?

[Unregistered]

I Am A Owner Of 4 Very Successful Tax And Financial Planning Offices. My Staff And I Produce Almost 6000 Tax Returns Between Our 4 Offices And Provide Bookkeeping Services To Almost 550 Others. We Manage Nearly 100 Million In Retirment And Investment Assests. Enough Said ! Are You Satisfied Suebaby ?

[geekgirldany]

Yep had a person call wanting me to tell her how to use turbo tax. Asked if she could bring by her laptop and I can show her how to enter a K-1. Told her no. She then asked "don't you use turbo tax?". "No I use a real tax program".

I've had alot of people think I use turbo tax to prepare returns. New customers mostly.

[Don B]

this from someone who can't even turn off cap locks

And spells so very well.

[Bees Knees]

Sorry I have to disagree. I have used a couple of packages that do a good job of asking questions and getting good number.

Sadly most "tax pros" will disparage any software that takes returns out of their income stream.

Fact is MOST people have NO use for others to do their taxes.

We need to dump the personal income tax and get to something sensible.

It use to cost me $9 to buy the oil and oil filter at Target to change the oil in my car. Then I would spend the afternoon crawling under my car fighting to get to that oil plug and oil filter without splashing oil all over myself. Then what to do with the dirty oil? Finally, I would have to take a shower to get the sand out of my hair from rolling around in the driveway all afternoon.

Then I figured out that for $20, I could sit in a nice lobby and read the paper while a professional changed the oil for me, and I would be on my way in less than a half an hour.

I can enter all data, print, assemble, check, and have the tax return ready for the client's signature in less than an hour in most cases, AND, get the calculations and tax law theory correct the first time. How many hours does it take you to do that?

[John of PA]

Another Turbo Tax Story

Isn't Turbo Tax wonderful GeekGirl? I have a client who brought me thier information totally in the form of disk with their Turbo Tax file on it. I told them I don't have the software, but could they please print out the return for me with every detail schedule it will print. They are having trouble doing it, and they are one of my over 60 extensions I will be filing this year. Thank you Turbo Tax, becasue I like extensions becasue they spread the workload out.

[Armando Beaujolais]

Isn't Turbo Tax wonderful GeekGirl? I have a client who brought me thier information totally in the form of disk with their Turbo Tax file on it. I told them I don't have the software, but could they please print out the return for me with every detail schedule it will print. They are having trouble doing it, and they are one of my over 60 extensions I will be filing this year. Thank you Turbo Tax, becasue I like extensions becasue they spread the workload out.

I've also seen some terribly frustrated people who have been using the consumer tax programs. I purposely position my home computer well away from any windows because there are too many occasions where I'd yank the thing out by the cords and hurl it outside to the ground below because of frustration with trying to load programs, keep the thing running, learn new programs, etc. (There's a guy at work who does all that, so we don't need to worry about it at the office).

Combine general computer frustration with trying to do a tax return without knowing how the forms work, and the recipe can be disaster. I had a client come in the other day who was a shadow of his former self. You guessed it. He'd tried off-the-shelf software, and he doesn't have a guy to take care of his computer. He's now resting comfortably and hoping to save his marriage. Looks 30 years older.

The nightmare I'm hearing is with updates. It seems the consumer programs are developed needing significant updates right out of the box. Most programs you get with computers prompt you to turn off the spyware to load it up. These tax programs don't seem to be doing that automatically. The junior computer tax preparers probably don't even know what virus protection is, much less how to turn it on and off easily. Once they start getting error messages and messing with settings, well, let's hope their computer isn't close to their window.

I have no problem with companies trying to make a buck. But I think it's pretty bad business to put a program out there with enticement that makes it sound easy when 90% the time it's really complicated for the particular user.

[SueBaby]

I Am A Owner Of 4 Very Successful Tax And Financial Planning Offices. My Staff And I Produce Almost 6000 Tax Returns Between Our 4 Offices And Provide Bookkeeping Services To Almost 550 Others. We Manage Nearly 100 Million In Retirment And Investment Assests. Enough Said ! Are You Satisfied Suebaby ?

Wow I am impressed. I do have a headache with mine, but not like yours. I have to say," HATS OFF"!