It’s tax season again and that means finding a way for us to get it done easily and correctly. This year I’m reviewing Turbo Tax and I wanted to share some of my thoughts as I went through their program.

Entering Business & Personal Income

Turbo Tax made it really easy to get this information. It’s done in an interview style. As you go through the process, TurboTax will keep updating the amount of your refund (or taxes owed).

Looking at tax refund.....

Self Employed: After entering our personal information, I was prompted to enter my business income for 2009. Throughout the tax interview, Turbotax shows the amount of tax owed or the refund to expect at the top of the screen. It’s nice to have a running tab as you go through the process. I personally enjoyed seeing the refund amount.

W-2s and Personal Income: Filling out our personal income was easy with Turbo Tax and it took a few minutes.

Something that I liked with Turbo Tax this year was how simple it was to correct and fill in information. If you forget to fill in an amount, it will right away catch this and you can fix it. This avoids you pulling out the W-2 again much later. There is also a fantastic flag feature that you can use to book mark certain areas you need to look over again.

Tax Deductions and Credits

Once we entered information, Turbo Tax helped us with tax deductions and credits. The goal is to make sure you don’t miss a single deduction or tax credit. Turbo Tax will comb all the deductions and credits. I wanted to highlight just a few of the topics that Turbo Tax reviews with you.

Tax time is much easier with Turbo Tax.

Business Deductions: Turbo Tax reviewed my business information and inquired about certain expenses that I might be able to deduct, such as vehicle for business use.

Mortgage: Quicken asked if we owned a home in 2009 to interview and possibly pick up some deductions. Unfortunately we did not own a home in 2009.

Family: Many of the deductions and credits did not fit us and our circumstances, but I was impressed with how thorough the interview was. It covered:

• Child and Dependent Care
• Earned Income Credit
• Adoption Expenses

Cars and Personal Property: Did you know that some states you can deduct car registration fees, like California?

Live Community Feature

This by far is my favorite feature of Turbo Tax. They’ve collected thousands of questions over the past 3 years and created a resource that allows you to get the answer to some of your most common tax questions. Tax experts are moderators, checking to make sure the answers are correct so you’re not given bad information.

Grab a Copy of Turbo Tax

You can either purchase a desktop copy of turbo Tax by box or download,  or you can do all your taxes online. If you’re looking at another opinion, check out Matt Jabs’ wonderful Turbo Tax review on Debt Free Adventure.

Photo Credit: alancleaver_2000

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