TaxBrain 1040 Deluxe Reviewer's Comments
TaxBrain is a good online filing service for 1040EZ or simple 1040 filers who are looking for a quick refund. It is a bit on the pricey side; TaxBrain charges $19.95 to $99.95 to file a federal return and $19.95 to $29.95 for a state return. As a bonus, the electronic filing fee is included in the purchase price and they provide quick loans at an additional cost.
The navigation is intuitive but it's not convenient. To go back to make changes to a previous screen, you need to finish the screen that you're on and then go to the section that you want to correct.
Novice-Friendly:
This aspect is just like filling in the paper forms yourself without the paper. Therefore, it's not a good solution for a novice user. To begin the process, you answer a few questions online and they determine what form(s) you need and you just type in the figures online.
Ease of Sign-up:
Because this product is online, there is no download or installation necessary. You do have to setup an account, though, which takes a few minutes. You also have to worry about keeping the account name and password in a safe place and somewhere you can remember it.
Feature Set:
TaxBrain offers few tax preparation features. However, they do offer many additional features such as quick loans for refunds and several archiving options. They will send you a bound copy of your taxes for $19.95 or save your taxes in their database for up to five years for $9.95 and they offer audit assistance for $34.95.
This service can help you electronically file federal and state tax returns and they offer quite a few of the extra forms you may need, such as income reporting, small business income/loss, deductions, credits and a few other special forms.
This product also has the capability to import from Quicken and Microsoft Money.
Help/Documentation/Search:
In terms of customer support, TaxBrain offers chat, email and telephone contact. They also post a knowledge base section and FAQs pages. However, they are not necessarily easy to find. For example, if you click on "questions" from their home page, it takes you to a "We've got Answers" page, but the only thing you can access there is the chat option.
Summary:
TaxBrain can get your tax job done and in usually less than 40 minutes. If you are expecting a refund and cannot wait to get your money, they can help you get a quick loan.
