gear02

I'm a little confused: what's the difference between the box tax software and the ones they (Turbotax, etc) offer online?

Cubsfan

Mainly price I think. You can get some good discounts on the online ones. I think that State Farm, Fidelity, Vangard, and several others offer discounts off of TurboTax online.

Jeffbx

Here's a good discount on TurboTax:

http://turbotax.intuit.com/microsite...requestid=3249

Free for Basic or Deluxe, $20 for Premier, $45 for Home & Business. Download only. Oh, all of them include State as well.

I got Deluxe - no CC or anything needed on the free products.

VTGreg

While the online versions are cheaper, you don't get to keep the return locally on your machine. When you purchase a program in the store and bring it home, you can save your tax return locally to your machine. Not a huge issue, but you must rely on paper copies for previous returns.

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Maarchk

I did mine like that online last year. free and easy. and i printed out some copies and kept them in a file which you would probably want to do anyways since computers can break.

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renovation

we used tax act online this year and last. you do pay for them to keep the info on file for the next year. but it was/is worth it so you don't have to fill all the blanks back in.
fyi to in 3 days we had are state and 8 for the federal with direct deposit.

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Jeffbx

FYI the link above IS for the packaged version, not the online - you just have to download it rather than getting the CD.

VTGreg

Link didn't work.

Jeffbx

Oooh, they must have just pulled it - worked this morning.

I'll update if I get a new link

gwilks98

Got my tax software off of Woot. 1gb USB drive with TaxCut state/federal already on it for 35.

Either way you choose to do your taxes (online or via downloadable software), I suggest you also save a copy in PDF instead of keeping the proprietary-format data copy. That way you can keep a copy of your return no matter what cute OS incompatibility Microsoft pulls 5 years down the road when you get audited.

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gear02

How is it Microsoft's fault when it's Intuit and Taxcut's proprietary format?

gwilks98

There's no standard for tax form files so I don't fault Inuit or Taxcut or anyone else.

I'm talking about you getting an updated OS that can no longer run programs meant for the XP era. I don't really fault Microsoft for that either. It's the way stuff happens these days. (Apple did it with OS X).

Nija

Adobe -> Print to PDF

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