Tax Deductions and Credits The Advantages of Using Tax Software to Prepare Your Taxes Read the Article Open Share Drawer Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Written by Elle Martinez Published Jan 13, 2014 - [Updated Apr 16, 2014] 2 min read It’s a new year and with it comes tax season. The good news is you can use tax software to easily prepare your taxes. There are several advantages of using TurboTax, so if you’re on the fence please take look at the list below. Easy to Use I want tax software to be extremely easy to use and follow. Good tax software makes you feel as if you’re answering friendly questions about yourself. I feel like we get the job done right answering TurboTax simple questions and verifying the information. Tax software like TurboTax also helps you avoid duplicating work. For example, TurboTax easily transferred our information from our federal tax return to our state’s tax return. It might not see like such a big deal, but being able to eliminate inputting information again saves time and allows for accuracy. Learn More About Taxes Yes, I do consider learning about taxes as a plus. What tax software can do is show how the current tax credits and deductions affect you. When we bought the house in 2010, I saw how that increased our tax refund I learned about itemizing our deductions versus taking the standard deduction. We also learned about the tax deductions and credits we were able to take related to having our new baby. Becoming more knowledgeable about your own taxes is empowering and easy with TurboTax. You can answer simple questions about you and your life and accurately file your taxes and get your biggest tax refund. Have a Question? Get Some Help If I’m filing taxes using software, I expect to have some kind of safety net. I’ve used TurboTax for a few years now and one of my favorites is their Live Community or what’s now called the AnswerXchange. Over the years they’ve answered a vast amount of questions people have about their taxes. In addition there are tax experts who are CPAs and enrolled agents available to answer your questions. That’s a huge relief for me as we file our taxes. We want to be honest and we want to take advantage of every legal opportunity to lower tax liability. Thoughts on Tax Software I feel very comfortable using tax software to file our taxes. How about you? If you used tax software before, what are some of your thoughts? How are you filing your taxes this year? Why did you choose that option? Are you expecting a tax refund or do you owe taxes? Previous Post Expiring Tax Provisions Part II Next Post 5 Common Tax Forms You Should Expect in the Mail Written by Elle Martinez Elle helps families at Couple Money achieve financial freedom by sharing tips for reducing debt, increase income, and building net worth. Learn how to live on one income and have fun with the second. More from Elle Martinez Visit the website of Elle Martinez. Follow Elle Martinez on Facebook. Follow Elle Martinez on Twitter. 15 responses to “The Advantages of Using Tax Software to Prepare Your Taxes” Where is IT in tax software, it’s time for sure! Reply I need help filling my taxs 2013 Reply I’ve used Turbo Tax for many years without a problem until last year, I submitted our return on the last day to file along with our payment. Our payment was accepted; however on the 16th of April, I received an e-mail telling me our Federal tax return did not go through. Our accountant said this had happened to several of his clients and advised me to mail it, which we did. Before I purchase Turbo Tax this year, have you encountered any problems? This was not an operator or computer error. Reply I’ve been using TurboTax for ten+ years. The current TY 2013 edition is a big step down on user unfriendliness and frustration from older versions. They fixed something that wasn’t broken. Reply I am a first time user of turbo-tax, if i am married filing separately, do we need to get as one user or two user’s id? After buying the software are there any charges for filing the taxes? Reply If someone you know owes back taxes but you would like to claim them on your taxes, will your refund if any be taken for what that person owes? Reply “The Advantages of Using Tax Software to Prepare Your Taxes” 1. You can join the ranks of fellow 21st Century Americans who’ve been doing their taxes online since the 20th Century.’ 2. Any further advantages are icing on the cake of #1, above. Reply I made a large charitable donation from my IRA before the end of the year and I know the taxes are exempted on this amount. What I don’t know is if I can show that amount in the itemized deduction portions under donations? Any help will be appreciated. Reply Hi Faye, If you are 70-1/2 or older your distributions from your IRA directly to a charitable organization are normally taxable, however 2013 is the last year you can make a distribution which is excluded from your income. If this is the case you would not show your donation under itemized deductions. Your 1099-R will reflect the amount of income distributed that should be excluded from income. TurboTax will also ask you simple questions about you and based on your answers prepare your tax return. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply I used Turbo Tax software last year to file 1040, itemized deductions and the program worked fine until I got to the last screen, where a little pop up box said “all of your personal data will be sold/shared with third parties.” It scared me and I closed it and never completed the mailing. I printed it off and mailed it myself. Can you tell me why they would be sharing all my personal info with everyone???? Reply Hi Faye, I am not sure why you saw that message. TurboTax does not sell or share personal information with third parties. I encourage you to give it a try again. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply I used Turbo Tax and a free tax USA software Both give me the exact same return. Turbo tax costs approx 79 more to file with. Are there any advantage of using Turbo tax over the other? Hi Sandy, There are advantages to using TurboTax, you can actually speak to tax experts who are CPAs and Enrolled Agents via phone, our audit support that offers guidance if you receive an IRS notice is available whether you’re using our Free product or not, I also know that we don’t make you figure out things like your filing status, we do that for you based on answers to your questions. I would also make sure you are in our correct product. You may be able to use a different version for your tax situation. Also keep in mind that we have been in business since the ’80s and our software is always up to date with the latest tax law changes. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis I caught up with my property taxes last year. I paid 2011 & 2012 can I claim both of them on my 2013 taxes? Also, what is the standard deduction amount for 2013? Reply I asked a question 1.5 weeks ago and have never heard back. I did check the response by email boxes. 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I’ve used Turbo Tax for many years without a problem until last year, I submitted our return on the last day to file along with our payment. Our payment was accepted; however on the 16th of April, I received an e-mail telling me our Federal tax return did not go through. Our accountant said this had happened to several of his clients and advised me to mail it, which we did. Before I purchase Turbo Tax this year, have you encountered any problems? This was not an operator or computer error. Reply
I’ve been using TurboTax for ten+ years. The current TY 2013 edition is a big step down on user unfriendliness and frustration from older versions. They fixed something that wasn’t broken. Reply
I am a first time user of turbo-tax, if i am married filing separately, do we need to get as one user or two user’s id? After buying the software are there any charges for filing the taxes? Reply
If someone you know owes back taxes but you would like to claim them on your taxes, will your refund if any be taken for what that person owes? Reply
“The Advantages of Using Tax Software to Prepare Your Taxes” 1. You can join the ranks of fellow 21st Century Americans who’ve been doing their taxes online since the 20th Century.’ 2. Any further advantages are icing on the cake of #1, above. Reply
I made a large charitable donation from my IRA before the end of the year and I know the taxes are exempted on this amount. What I don’t know is if I can show that amount in the itemized deduction portions under donations? Any help will be appreciated. Reply
Hi Faye, If you are 70-1/2 or older your distributions from your IRA directly to a charitable organization are normally taxable, however 2013 is the last year you can make a distribution which is excluded from your income. If this is the case you would not show your donation under itemized deductions. Your 1099-R will reflect the amount of income distributed that should be excluded from income. TurboTax will also ask you simple questions about you and based on your answers prepare your tax return. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply
I used Turbo Tax software last year to file 1040, itemized deductions and the program worked fine until I got to the last screen, where a little pop up box said “all of your personal data will be sold/shared with third parties.” It scared me and I closed it and never completed the mailing. I printed it off and mailed it myself. Can you tell me why they would be sharing all my personal info with everyone???? Reply
Hi Faye, I am not sure why you saw that message. TurboTax does not sell or share personal information with third parties. I encourage you to give it a try again. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply
I used Turbo Tax and a free tax USA software Both give me the exact same return. Turbo tax costs approx 79 more to file with. Are there any advantage of using Turbo tax over the other?
Hi Sandy, There are advantages to using TurboTax, you can actually speak to tax experts who are CPAs and Enrolled Agents via phone, our audit support that offers guidance if you receive an IRS notice is available whether you’re using our Free product or not, I also know that we don’t make you figure out things like your filing status, we do that for you based on answers to your questions. I would also make sure you are in our correct product. You may be able to use a different version for your tax situation. Also keep in mind that we have been in business since the ’80s and our software is always up to date with the latest tax law changes. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis
I caught up with my property taxes last year. I paid 2011 & 2012 can I claim both of them on my 2013 taxes? Also, what is the standard deduction amount for 2013? Reply
I asked a question 1.5 weeks ago and have never heard back. I did check the response by email boxes. Reply