Tax software woes
Jan. 14th, 2006 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nlbarberI set out to buy TurboTax 2005 today, in the hopes that I would at least start my taxes as I got ready to pay my 4th quarter estimated tax. In the ideal world, I'd get far enough along with the return to see if I really need to make that 4th quarter payment.
Found the TurboTax display at Office Depot, noted that the Mac and PC products are now packaged together on a hybrid CD, and took a quick look at the package. And found the big problem, from my viewpoint: TurboTax has dropped their rebate for online filing. Later research found the ostensible reason on their Web site: people don't send in for the rebate, so they dropped it. (But didn't lower the price of the product, IIRC.) Having gone through their rebate procedure many times, I certainly can understand why people don't do it...
I will strongly consider reverting to paper filing because of this change--I've always felt that the IRS should be subsidizing online filing because of the savings it gives them, and my expression of protest is to refuse to pay the third-party filing fees. I don't see why I should pay extra to save the IRS money, and as I don't generally get a refund, there's no incentive there either.
TurboTax is the only game in town for the Mac this year. TaxCut has dropped their Mac version, and recommends that Mac users go to their Web version--not an option for my fairly complicated taxes. Boo on Intuit!
Found the TurboTax display at Office Depot, noted that the Mac and PC products are now packaged together on a hybrid CD, and took a quick look at the package. And found the big problem, from my viewpoint: TurboTax has dropped their rebate for online filing. Later research found the ostensible reason on their Web site: people don't send in for the rebate, so they dropped it. (But didn't lower the price of the product, IIRC.) Having gone through their rebate procedure many times, I certainly can understand why people don't do it...
I will strongly consider reverting to paper filing because of this change--I've always felt that the IRS should be subsidizing online filing because of the savings it gives them, and my expression of protest is to refuse to pay the third-party filing fees. I don't see why I should pay extra to save the IRS money, and as I don't generally get a refund, there's no incentive there either.
TurboTax is the only game in town for the Mac this year. TaxCut has dropped their Mac version, and recommends that Mac users go to their Web version--not an option for my fairly complicated taxes. Boo on Intuit!
