Intuitive Navigation:  

Of all the tax service options we reviewed, TurboTax Deluxe Online was the most logically arranged and quick to move through. We were able to easily switch from filling out Federal Tax information to asking the TurboTax online community a question and then back. One of the features we especially liked is that it groups related items together and asks you to check the ones that apply to you. It saves you time from answering "no" question after question.

Novice-Friendly:  

Every year it becomes easier for people without accounting experience to file their own taxes, thanks to the ever-improving online options. TurboTax has kept their software intuitive and explanations simple. It follows a linear process so all you need to do is answer the questions in front of you and if you don't know what answer to give, check the extensive Help section. This program also asks you to check easy to understand items, like “I am single” or “I owned my home,” simple stuff; it is not packed with legal jargon. TurboTax is also very good at giving you every opportunity to claim deductions, automatically checks your return for common errors or missed deductions, and checks again before you file your return. If you are still unsure of yourself, you can even get professional tax advice for an additional fee.

Ease of Sign-up:  

TurboTax accounts are easy to set up: Create your user name, choose your password, pick a security question and answer combination, and give them your email address and you’re done! TurboTax saves your information so you can come back and work on your tax forms anytime. Or you can try it out anonymously and create an account later.

Feature Set:  

TurboTax Deluxe offers almost every feature we looked for and includes some excellent compatibility options. The only thing it does not offer is refund anticipation loans, which are often provided by a third-party high-interest charging loan company.

This online tax program makes it easy to manage data. For example, it can retrieve data from previous years if you filed through TurboTax and quickly loads data from your Federal to your State from. TurboTax also has the ability to easily import information from Quicken. It can even help you get your W-2s and 1099 information faster from over 100K participating employers and financial institutions.

TurboTax also has built in tools that look for not only deductions but also credits. Credits looked for include tuition paid, Hybrid car credits and more. Often these credits are over looked, but TurboTax asks you the right questions so it can uncover as many credits as it can for you to lower your tax rate.

Submitting your return is easy and you can usually get your return back within eight days if you use the direct deposit option. This year also has an improved return or owe meter, so you can watch your balance as you go and it has an extremely easy to understand audit meter that will let you know if anything on your return looks like it could potentially trigger an audit. In addition, to try to keep you away from a stressful audit it can compare your deductions to others in your income bracket to see if you fall within the “normal” range.

Beyond basic tax preparation assistance, TurboTax also offers:

• Year-to-year Deduction Comparisons*
• Direct Deposit of Refunds
• Quick Entry for Investments
• Deductions/Credits Guided Interviews
• Error Checks
• Tax Library
• Medical Expenses
• Electronic Filing with Confirmation of Receipt
• Audit Defense**
• Real Live Tax Pro assistance
• An active community forum
• Professional tax preparers for an additional cost

TurboTax reconfigures and recalculates entries instantly comparing different tax scenarios and chooses the best path for a maximum return. TurboTax can evaluate your 401K contributions and estimate how much you can contribute before it affects your take-home pay and so on. This is a useful tool that can take the stress out of the tax season—within seconds, you can evaluate all of your tax choices.

Help/Documentation/Search:  

TurboTax Deluxe Online has one of the most extensive help sections available on the market for tax preparation. There are also audio and video explanations that help you understand specific concepts relating to filing your taxes and tax law changes. One of the most impressive features is the online community. Simply enter your question and TurboTax searches the community for similar questions. More often than not, another member has already asked your question and has received an answer from one of the many helpful members. In fact this forum is extremely active with some contributors providing literally thousands of entries of tax advice and support.

TurboTax Deluxe Online improves every year and once again is the best do-it-yourself tax preparation product on the market. The service is easy to use and can turn a nail biting, pencil breaking process into a no-worries, quick walk-through a simple to use online application.

TurboTax Deluxe is also available in a software box version. The software includes federal and state filing and all of the convenient features of the online version. Using the online service eliminates the need to install the program. And TurboTax can add another layer of protection by saving copies of your tax documents on their servers, so should anything happen to your computer or your hard copies, you are covered.

* Available to previous users of Quicken, TurboTax, or TurboTax Online

** Available for an additional fee