TurboTax 2010 Home & Business from Intuit Inc.
By Howard Berenbon
Okay, US tax payers, it’s March 2011, and April 15 is approaching, the most important financial date of the year: the deadline for filing your federal and state income tax forms. Every year our lawmakers surprise us with changes that can affect what we owe and what we get back as a refund from our Federal, State and Local tax contribution. In the beginning, I was doing taxes on my own, only with the help of the IRS tax forms and publications. If I had any questions, I’d call the IRS. It was tedious work that could take a week for just personal taxes and much more time if you run a business. A close friend who had been doing his own taxes, decided to try TurboTax, and after trying it for that first year, he said he’d never go back to preparing his taxes on his own.
Every year I recommend TurboTax because it works for me, and I’m confident my tax is being prepared with the best tax advice available. I use the step-by-step interview, which is thorough, and seems to cover every tax situation available. When I’m done, I easily file electronically without problems. If you have a problem, help is available within the program, or 24/7 through online chat and their Live Community with questions and answers by experienced users and experts. Intuit also guarantees you’ll get the highest legally allowable refund. If you haven’t used TurboTax, then it’s about time you try. TurboTax is now available for use online—nothing to install--which includes one Federal eFile for $74.95, or on a single CD for $99.95. For me, I prefer a CD so I can access the software on my computer.
If you haven’t started collecting your tax data, it’s time to get all your papers in order. You should have all important federal, state and local tax records and 2010 tax statements from financial institutions for the year 2010. You also need expense information for your deductions including property tax payments, home improvement expenses, health related expenses, interested paid and business expenses (if you run your own business). You’ll need that information plus the 1099s and W-2 forms from banks and employers to enter into the tax forms—or in this case, TurboTax. Once you have all the data you need, you can take the data to your accountant, prepare the forms on your own or buy TurboTax 2010 and make Intuit your computerized accountant, which is my choice. TurboTax will save you time and money, and once you use it there’s no turning back. It's not expensive, starting at $19.95 for Federal form 1040EZ filers. For more complex tax situations, personal or business, they offer several versions from $40 to $129.95 and include free Federal eFile with an additional cost for the state.
Installation
TurboTax 2010 installs from a single CD in just a few minutes. Once installed, it checks for updates, and then you’re required to register. To begin, click on Start a New Return, and then you can transfer your 2009 tax information from last year’s TurboTax file, or you can just start a new return. Transferring your information from last year’s return is a great time-saving feature. So, all you need to do is change the numbers from 2009, and enter any new financial information if you have any other changes or additions. For example, if you have to add another bank account, or you sold some stock, you just add the new forms.
For the experienced, TurboTax lets you enter your tax data directly into each form, or they’ll guide you through your entry with a series of detailed questions. As you enter your data, you’ll see the estimated refund amount displayed at the top of the screen. If you need help, you can type your question into a search box at the top of the screen, or check your question against those commonly asked. When you’re done, you can print your forms for a backup, and then file electronically. You can also file by mailing your forms, but it’s so easy to eFile that you might as well take advantage of the free service.
TurboTax 2010 Home and Business Features
The important features include Live Tax Answers, error scanning with real time checking, bookmarks to return to different areas of your return, free technical support, improved file transfers, accuracy guarantee, up-to-date on latest tax laws, finds small-business and industry-specific deductions, creates W-2 and 1099 forms, imports investment information, finds best depreciation method, tracks your audit risk with risk meter, maximum donation deduction, new business startup deductions, deductions for rental property, guidance for investments, transfer data from QuickBooks and more:
- Find Small-Business Deductions – Expenses for your vehicle, supplies, utilities, home office and more
- Identifies Industry-Specific Deductions - Walks you through tax write-offs by industry to help you spot commonly overlooked deductions
- Analysis finds the best vehicle deduction
- Makes entering income easier – with all sources on a single page
- Creates and prints W-2 and 1099 forms for employees and contractors
- Simplifies asset depreciation and guides you through calculating and reporting
- Streamlines expense entry and provides additional tax deduction suggestions
- Extra guidance for new businesses
- Imports investment information
- Accurately reports investment sales
- Determines your cost basis for stock sales
- Employee stock plan help
- 401(k) retirement plan maximizer – increase contribution without reducing take-home pay
- Find every rental deduction – for landlords, from travel to advertising to insurance repair
- Shows best depreciation method
- Maximizes refinancing deductions
- Help with new rental property
- Finds all tax deductions and credits
- Looks for deduction opportunities as you go
- Gets the maximum deduction for donations
- Handles your life changes – marriage, new baby, bought a home
- Helps with medical expenses
- Help reduce audit risk with downloadable support center and full service representation\
- Automatically fills in W-2 and 1099 information
- Transfers last year’s tax data
- Imports a pdf file of last year’s tax return
- Imports financial data
- Live tax answers
- Free technical support
- Spots errors and shows how to fix them
- Guaranteed accurate calculations
- Tax law updates available with single mouse click
TurboTax 2010 Home & Business retails for $99.95 ($70.99 through Amazon.com) and will run on any multimedia PC (Windows or Macintosh), 450 MHz 32-bit or faster processor, 500 MB hard disk space, 256 MB RAM with Windows XP/Vista/7, a CD-ROM drive and Adobe Reader 7.0 or higher. Mac – PowerPC G3 or higher processor, 256 MB RAM, 280 MB hard disk space and Mac OS X (10.4) or higher. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.
Software Companies Mentioned
Intuit Inc.
2500 Garcia Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94043
Phone: 1-800-446-8848
URL turbotax.com
