Tag: IRS tax forms

TurboTax Offers Money Saving Tips For This Year

When it is time to use TurboTax For This Year to complete your taxes, you may want to consider a few tips that can save you money in the coming year. Planning early in the year makes it easier to reach your financial goals by the end of the year. Since you are already running the numbers with Turbo Tax 2014, you have records that can show you where to make cuts for the next year.

Review Your W-4

Changes in withholding laws affect the money your employer must withhold from each paycheck. If you find you owe money at the end of the year using Turbotax 2014, you may want to increase the withholding. If you are getting a big refund each year, decrease the amount withheld to increase your monthly budget.

Winterize Your Home

Turbo Tax 2014 can help you to find special tax credits for this type of action. They reduce the cost of projects that provide long term savings to you as a homeowner.

Money Saving Tips For 2015 - TurboTax This Year
Photo by Conny Sandland

Look at Your Cellular Plan

Many people are paying hundreds of dollars monthly for their cellphones. That two year contract that gives you the latest smart phone can be costly. Today, there are providers offering great plans with no contract. Some are as little as $25 per month and will allow you to bring your existing phone.

Turbo Tax 2014 offers some great tips for ensuring you take qualifying deductions on your tax returns. In addition, the software makes tips that can help you to save even more for the following year.

TurboTax And Jackson Hewitt Compared

Now it is tax time 2015 for filing your 2014 tax returns. Many people have not filed their tax returns yet. If you are one of those individuals and are considering a paid preparer or tax software, know that the best-selling packages are Jackson Hewitt and Intuit’s TurboTax.

You may look into online tax filing, too. The most basic tax returns are free with support provided through live chat and support email. It is possible to download your W-2 forms, and tax returns from past years can be imported from other tax companies. If you choose the TurboTax 2015 free edition or the tax package from H&R Block, you will not have access to such options as they can only import their own past returns.

Complicated returns filed through Jackson Hewitt tax locations cost $19.95, and upgraded tax software for home owners and families from TurboTax is $34.95. Owners of small businesses and self-employed individuals may purchase their TurboTax tax programs for $49.95. The price on all state returns is $34.95.

Regarding TurboTax, the company has had some trouble recently. When it increased its Deluxe edition pricing, customers were upset, and General Manager of TurboTax, Sasan Goodarzi, said that the company just did not think ahead. Also, some states would not take TurboTax returns because of concern over fraud for a short period of time. TurboTax has since made the TurboTax login more secure and given rebates on its Premium edition for those that purchase the less thorough Deluxe version.

TurboTax is giving customers free upgrades and rebates for the next year. Any program purchased before the security was upgraded will be refunded $25 until April 20, 2015.

TurboTax
Photo by MrGuilt

And returning TurboTax users may take advantage of support on the earned income credit. Costs are a little higher than Jackson Hewitt: $34.95, or a full $15 higher than Jackson Hewitt. State returns prepared with TurboTax are $2 more than with Jackson Hewitt.

Lastly, TurboTax offers a small business software package for $79.99. The software allows the user to import his tax deduction figures directly from the popular bookkeeping software QuickBooks.

Refund Offered For Software Change Mistake

Some users of TurboTax Deluxe software were recently offered an apology, along with a $25 refund. This action comes as as a result of a software mistake made by Intuit on their 2013 edition of TurboTax Deluxe.

Get Your Maximum Tax Refund

Intuit freely admits their mistake and has taken these actions in order to make right with their customers and help gain their reputation back. However, some customers are not happy due to the fact that the TurboTax Deluxe 2014 edition sold for the same price as the 2013 edition, even though the newer edition will no longer be able to help customers who need to electronically file a Schedule C, D, E, or F. This means any tax filer who had capital gains or losses, had rental income, receive partnership royalties and distributions, had farm income, or needs to file a profit and loss statement will need to upgrade from the Deluxe package to the Premier package, or the even pricier Home and Business TurboTax edition.

Up until recently, some customers who called to complain were able to get a free upgrade, or a $25 credit once their return was filed.

TurboTax
Photo by Conny Sandland

TurboTax is one of the most frequently used tax software programs, with 28 million filers, while H&R Block and TaxAct each had about 7 million users filing with their tax software. In fact, H&R Block has offered former TurboTax customers a free download of their deluxe program plus state. They have not disclosed numbers yet, but have reported an “overwhelming response” to their free offer. TaxAct has not followed in their foot steps.

Only time will tell how many customers will stay loyal to TurboTax 2015 and how many will make the switch to a different, possibly more budget friendly tax software program.

How to do your 2015 Taxes with TaxAct 2014

TaxAct is one of the leading software’s for preparing and filling tax returns and it has just released the 2014 software for 1040, 1065, 1120s, 1120 and 1041 tax returns. So starting from January small business owners are able to complete their federal and state returns and e-file them after the program has been updated with the final IRS forms and any charges that are updated at the last minute. The software is also updated with the latest federal law tax changes to enable even small business owners to view their 2014 taxes, identify how they can save and advise on 2015 budgeting.

The program asks simple questions about your income, losses, expenses, deductions, and credits and uses this information to calculate, check for errors and completes the tax forms.This will help everyone including self employed individuals to minimize tax liability before the years ends.

Using this software you can save hundreds of dollars that you would use to prepare and plan for tax returns. It takes only $49.99 to prepare, print and e-file a 1065, 1120S or 1120 federal tax returns and only $19.99 for each state return.

It does not end there, TaxAct offers free personal technical help with your taxes including unlimited phone help when required. This software includes a money back guarantee after thirty days and you do not have to pay for the online version until you file previewed completed tax forms.

Turbo Tax
Turbo tax was the best rated and top selling tax software last year probably due to its clean streamlined presentation and step by step interview. It is great for both the first time users or those who do this year after year. Theses people are so confident about their product that they offer a big refund if you use another tax preparation method and get a bigger refund. Another little helpful feature is as you take each step the sidebar shows how much you owe and how much you are entitled to in refunds. And you can do all this from your iPad using the fully featured iPad app.

The software allows you to import tax information from other softwares like TaxAct from the previous year. In case of an audit the company offers free support from the Audit Support Centre with instructions on what to do in case the IRS come for you.

The website uses questions to determine the best package for you. They range from the free edition to the business for $149.99.

There are a number of tax e-filers out there so choose one that is easy to use and will help you to understand the more difficult areas such as deduction and corporate elements. E-filing will reduce the stress and time it takes to file your tax returns.

TurboTax Offering Free Online Tax Filing for 2014

Intuit TurboTax has just announced that Americans can use their software to file their 2014 taxes with no fees or charges. For about 60 million tax filing Americans, it might just be the best possible tax break.

The TurboTax Federal free edition allows taxpayers to file both their state and federal taxes, and this is the first time the company has provided this service at no charge. If you have been thinking about switching from a well known national tax preparer, now is the ideal time to do that especially as TurboTax users will also not have to claim their earned income tax credit or adhere to new health care laws.

For the approximately 60 percent of people with simple returns who file as early in the year as possible, TurboTax Absolute Zero is going to be one of the most useful tax tools ever. Many of these early filers receive a refund check of around $2,700, making it the single biggest check they will get in the year. TurboTax is one of the most respected tax preparation names and prepares more returns that any other tax preparation company.

Sasan Goodarzi, the manager of Intuit’s tax group for consumers acknowledged that people understandably wanted to keep as much of their hard earned money as possible. Goodarzi went on to point out that the free service is the company’s way of offering hard working tax payers a break on their 2014 taxes and a way of demonstrating commitment in the coming years.

January 20th is the date that the IRS will begin to process tax returns that were filed electronically, although if you want to get a head start on your 2014 taxes, you can use TurboTax now. Your return will be held securely until the 20th when it will be processed.