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TurboTax. I hate it more every year. All those smiling faces and comments that try to be friendly, familiarly conversational. All the while taking 19.99 here, 39.99 (plus tax) here. And then screen after screen of "we're almost done. Just one more sales pitch I want to make you." And one more. And one more again. And...

[expletive] you. I know you're going to rape me as hard as I'll let you, but don't make it sound like its supposed to be friends with privileges, scumbags. Keep it professional and I'd appreciate it if you'd get it over with as soon as possible, OK?

My taxes really aren't that complicated and I'm getting close to going back to paper, envelopes and stamps to avoid this [expletive].

I still don't use the work tax software (which is good), and I buy turbotax for my own taxes and family questions, a few side gratis returns for elderly neighbors. . I'm about done with that.


Joe - I think you can skip some (but definitely not all) of the turbo tax BS by not doing "step-by-step" mode

My wife does our taxes on that, she was saying in illinois you couldn't even file electronically anyway because of some screw up with the state. I don't know this software, but in general I really hate the friendly bantor software tries to employ. Is it Firefox that says "Aw snap" when it crashes? Wow do I want punch somebody when I read that. I know it says "Well this was embarrassing" when it tries to start up after a crash. SharePoint says "We're working on it..." which often isn't true, a more accurate statement would be "Stuck forever, just kill me and start over".

TaxAct is not better. Might be a little cheaper though. I switched this year. Next year I'm going to file on my own, unless things get complicated.

It's kind of hilarious after all the frustration when they write a facebook post for you to share with all your friends if you'd like. Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

I've used TaxAct for the past few years after switching from TurboTax, which I had used every year since graduating college in 2006 and having a job and being out on my own.

TurboTax became so expensive it was stupid for me - I still own a house in Iowa and in New York. My house in Iowa is rented out, so I have untaxed income from that that I have to report, which means I have to file an Iowa return, AND file for housing value depreciation due to it being an income property. I have to file a New York return (although unless the house is rented out because it won't sell, this will be the last time I have to do a New York return). A few years ago during my divorce, we still filed jointly one year since the divorce hadn't become official yet - it required us filling out state returns for New York, Iowa, Arizona, AND Kansas. I had to get TurboTax deluxe to get the extra stuff for having a rental property and mutual funds and whatnot. It was over $100 to file electronically for everything.

With TaxAct it's only like $30 or something for my federal and multiple state returns. Plus I find I'm getting MUCH higher refunds. Who knows, I may be doing something wrong now, but I've yet to get audited (and this year my federal return was approved something like 3 minutes after I filed it - refund direct deposited a few days later).

I don't miss prepping taxes, but I do miss the professional tax software. I started using TurboTax for the first time last year after 6 years of using ProSystem FX tax... I hate the guided tour tax process, I wish I could just go to the forms I want to adjust and use the workpapers in the software.

Though, if the tradeoff from ProFX to TurboTax is that I don't have to prepare returns anymore, I will take a lifetime of TurboTax.