Product Description

Find and maximize your deductions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #221 in Software
• Brand: Intuit
• Model: 408698
• Released on: 2008-11-21
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: Download

Features

• Prepare and print unlimited federal and state returns; e-file up to five federal returns (per IRS guidelines) at no additional charge
• Includes free federal efile -- receive IRS confirmation and get your refund in as few as 8 days
• Everything you need to easily do your tax return--asks easy questions customized to your situation, puts your answers on the correct IRS forms, checks for errors
• Searches for more than 350 deductions, including mortgage interest, education, and medical expenses, to get you the biggest refund--guaranteed
• TurboTax is the only tax software to include both e-filing and audit support with every federal return.

Amazon.com
TurboTax Deluxe helps find and maximize deductions. The software includes all the features in TurboTax Basic and guides customers step-by-step through mortgage interest, charitable contributions, education expenses, medical expenses and more. Not only does TurboTax Deluxe show taxpayers how to qualify for deductions, it also tracks how much they have saved. The software also includes ItsDeductible--the "bluebook" for donated items that helps accurately value your donations in compliance with IRS guidelines.

Asks easy questions We customize questions to your unique tax situation and put your answers on the right tax forms for you. Click to enlarge.

Maximizes deductions We search for more than 350 deductions to get you the biggest refund possible--guaranteed. Click to enlarge.

Efile for a fast refund Efile with direct deposit to get your refund in as few as 8 days. Federal efile included.

Everything you need to do your taxes with ease.

Finds All the Deductions You Deserve

Maximizes Your Tax Deductions
Asks simple questions about your income, family situation and changes in your tax situation. Then, based on your answers, searches for more than 350 deductions to get you the biggest tax refund--guaranteed.

Looks for Deduction Opportunities as You Go
Shows you which deductions you've taken. Which deductions you haven't. And tells you how to qualify for just about any deduction, so you don't miss any opportunities to save.

Gets You the Maximum Deduction for Donations
ItsDeductible (included) helps you accurately value items you donate to charity--no more guessing. Plus, it tracks other donations such as cash, mileage and stocks, to help you get every charitable deduction you're entitled to.

Improved Handles Your Life Changes
Changed jobs? Got married? Bought a home? Had a baby? TurboTax guides you through common life changes, explains how the changes will impact your taxes, and tells you what you can deduct.

Helps with Medical Expenses
Does all the math and tells you if you qualify to deduct your medical expenses for maximum tax savings.

Filing Multiple Returns? It's Easy with TurboTax
You can prepare and print unlimited federal returns and e-file up to five federal returns (per IRS guidelines) with TurboTax at no additional charge. You get all the features and benefits of TurboTax, like year-over-year transfer and audit support tools.

Federal e-filing is easy, fast and more accurate than paper filing and eliminates paperwork hassles. You'll receive IRS confirmation your return has been received and best of all, you'll get a faster refund—in as little as 8 days.* And you can start and work on as many returns as you like and still use all the tax planning features (scenario and alternative planning) you've come to value without having to pay extra.

*IRS typically estimates 8-15 days for efile with direct deposit.

Helps You Reduce Audit Risk

New Tracks Your Audit Risk
Audit Risk Meter checks your tax return for common audit triggers. Shows whether your risk is high or low. And provides tips to help you reduce your chance of an audit.

Includes Downloadable Audit Support Center
Gives you step-by-step guidance on everything you need to know and do if the IRS contacts you.

Alerts You to Audit Red Flags
Compares your deductions to national averages for your income bracket so you can quickly see if your deductions fall outside the norm and could possibly trigger an audit.

Does the Hard Work for You

Asks Easy Questions, Tailored to You
Guides you step by step through your tax return and puts your answers on the right tax forms for you. Skips interview questions that don't apply to you, so you can finish your return faster.

Improved Automatically Fills in W-2 and 1099 Info
Gets your W-2 and 1099 data directly from over 100,000 participating employers and financial institutions and automatically puts it in the right tax forms. A brief summary lets you review and edit downloaded information if necessary.

Transfers Last Year's Tax Info
No retyping necessary. Fills in information from your previous year's return to save time and increase accuracy. Shows you what you're importing and where it goes in your return. You can also import from other tax software including TaxACT and H&R Block's TaxCut.

Imports Your Financial Data
Imports information from your financial software (including Quicken, QuickBooks 2007 and higher, and Microsoft Money) so you can skip the cut and paste this year.

Provides Help and Advice When You Need It

Live Tax Answers
Get live answers online from TurboTax experts and other TurboTax users in our Live Community. Plus you'll have instant access to answers to commonly asked tax questions on every screen.

Straightforward Guidance & Advice
Find help on any tax topic from anywhere within TurboTax. Get plain-English explanations of specific tax areas and helpful examples when you need them.

Why TurboTax Deluxe is the easiest choice for you... TurboTax Deluxe was designed to make it easy for you to get the biggest tax refund possible. Choose TurboTax Deluxe if any of the following apply to you: You own your home You donated to charity You have significant education or medical expenses You have childcare expenses You have lots of deductions If you own investments or rental property, choose TurboTax Premier. It has everything in Deluxe PLUS will provide extra guidance so you get the most from your investments. If you are a sole proprietor, consultant, 1099 contractor, or single-owner LLC, TurboTax Home & Business has everything in Premier and will help you make the most of your business and personal deductions. If you own an S Corp, partnership, C Corp, or multiple-owner LLC, choose TurboTax Business.

New Guide Me
Not sure how to answer a tax question? We'll guide you to the right answer, making your taxes even easier.

New Explains Your Return
Shows you a summary of your return, including income, tax, credits and payments so you know your taxes are accurate. Provides recommendations to help you get an even bigger refund next year.

FREE Technical Support
Got a software question? No problem! Get answers from a TurboTax expert via e-mail, phone, or live chat.

Spots Errors and Shows How to Fix Them

Checks for Mistakes
Double-checks your return for errors, so you can be confident your taxes are done right.

Guaranteed Accurate Calculations
If you should get hit with an IRS or state penalty or interest due to a TurboTax calculation error, we'll pay you the penalty and interest.

Keeps You Up-to-Date with the Latest Tax Laws
With a single click you can check for updates each time you start to ensure your return includes the latest IRS and state tax forms. No more disruptions while you work on your return.

Get Your Refund Faster with Included Federal Efile

Improved Shows Your Tax Refund in Real Time
Watch your refund add up as you complete your return. Our improved Dual Refund Monitor constantly displays and updates both your federal and state refunds (or taxes due) as you complete your federal return.

New Federal Efile Included
Get your refund in as few as 8 days with efile and direct deposit. Five federal efiles are now included with TurboTax at no extra charge. If you're a returning user, we'll automatically transfer your efile information from your previous year's return to save you even more time.

Customer Reviews

pricing clarification
Since the majority of the existing comments cannot seem to convey this information without foaming at the mouth about getting ripped off. Here it is in simple English.

You purchase TurboTax Deluxe Federal + State + eFile 2008 for whatever dollar amount above. I paid $47.45 on 3/1/2009.

You get to create your federal and state tax returns.

You can efile your federal return for free.
(I did not attempt more than 1 federal efile, so I cannot speak to additional fees for additional efilings).

You can efile your state return for an additional $19.95.

That is it.

I chose to efile my federal return for free, and print my state and mail it.

I had no problems downloading it with the amazon downloader, it took all of 5 minutes.

About face
The Turbo Tax people have changed their minds. You don't have to pay $10 per return any more and you get 5 free federal e-files. They heard the complaints and changed their pricing policy.

Read this Review by a Tax Attorney!
[3/12/09 UPDATE: FOR ANYONE WHO DEDUCTS MORTGAGE INTEREST AND IS WONDERING WHETHER AND HOW THEY OWE AMT, PLEASE READ THE COMMENTS ATTACHED TO THIS REVIEW FOR CURRENT STATUS AND INFORMATION REGARDING INTUIT'S HANDLING OF THIS MAJOR SOFTWARE ERROR THAT CAUSES FORM 6251 NOT TO BE GENERATED/FILED AND POSSIBLE UNDERREPORTING OF TAXES OWED.]

* * *

I am an attorney and my wife is a tax attorney, and we have spent hours reverse engineering and confirming TurboTax software problems (with dummy numbers) last night to determine ONCE AGAIN that the brain trust at TurboTax is giving us defective product. I have used TurboTax since 2005 (only for the spread sheet aspects), and, now that the IRS has made free online filing spreadsheet software available regardless of income (check out the new "Fillable Forms" at the IRS Free File website), THIS WILL OFFICIALLY BE THE LAST YEAR I USE TURBOTAX. Hooraahhh! Every year I find numerous errors in their software (from mortgage interest deduction, to carry-overs, to properly completing non-cash charitable donations per IRS requirements, to calculating AMT credits, and now to yet another problem described here), and like many of you guys, every year that I write in about a problem, I get one of their generic, inane replies from some low-level non-attorney who knows nothing about the tax code. Like years past, I spend more time beta-testing their software bugs than actually doing my tax return. This year, I easily computed and input all my data for our 2008 return, but I can not get TurboTax to generate (unless I start overriding everything . . . which can lead to other problems) this year's requisite Form 6251 for the AMT so that I can actually e-file my return. Unlike most people, we do our returns manually per the paper IRS forms, instructions, publications, and tax regs (again my wife is a tax lawyer), and then we input it all in TurboTax to e-file it . . . and like this year, I ALWAYS find major problems in their software. For example, thousands of Americans are claiming a mortgage interest deduction on Schedule A that they are not entitled to due to the way TurboTax incorrectly distinguishes between home equity indebtedness and home acquisition indebtedness in the context of, e.g., refinanced primary mortgages that include a cash-out component, as well as due to the lack of direction in their menus about the need to compute average mortgage balances. TurboTax's interview just generically refers you to the IRS publication(s), which everyone tells me they do not have time to do (they tell me that's why they bought the software to begin with, so that they do NOT have to look at the Pubs, Regs, or Code) . . . even my attorney friends who use Turbo don't refer to the tax Pubs to figure out their average mortgage balances, and say instead that they simply claim everything on their 1098 Mortgage Interest Statements (which is wrong!). TurboTax could easily fix this longstanding gap in their software by hiring a tax attorney and programmer to add the same sort of interview questions and worksheets that are in Publication 936. But for some reason, after years of making this complaint, they still fail to do this. Seperate and aside from this problem, now I see this year, another huge software bug (described below) that makes me wonder how many filers with mortgage interest are not including Form 6251 for the AMT (even if they do not owe AMT, the form must still be attached/e-filed in many cases). As I say to all my friends, if you don't learn the basics of the tax code and check your taxes manually at least somewhat, then you will be in trouble if you solely rely on any version of TurboTax . . . as I have found that TurboTax has done my taxes wrong every year (2005, 2006, 2007, and now 2008). [This is absolutely true. Every year, my wife and I have had to override and/or spend days complaining to Intuit about necessary patches, etc.] Of course, I hope everyone here realizes that all these people that say "TurboTax is Easy and Great" in their 5-star reviews are often the worst type of resources to rely on for an assessment of whether this software is worth your money (and more importantly, time). . . as, how can these cheerleaders possibly be in a position to critique whether the software works correctly if they don't understand what is supposed to happen tax-wise in a given situation? If you read through ALL the reviews, you will often see the most critical reviews coming from people who evidence some tax knowledge on what TurboTax is supposed to do . . . these people seem far more reliable to me. Many of these 5-star reviews can be completely discounted by the fact that they were written by people who never had a CPA or lawyer verify that their alleged "so easy, so simple, so wonderful" tax returns were actually done correctly by the software's interview. As I said above, now that there is no income requirement for completing your return online at the IRS website with their free tax spreadsheet Fillable Forms (brand new option this year!), I will be saying GOODBYE to wasting $30-$60 a year on this software that my wife and I have to beta-test for days. And you can too. Trust me, as an attorney, your best options for your taxes are: (1) learn the tax code just enough so that you know what should happen tax-wise during each set of interview questions (and if you do that, then you can now use the IRS "fillable forms" and e-file for free at the IRS website); or (2) pay a little more and use a CPA or attorney. As your instinct probably tells you, no software program alone is going to magically do this stuff correctly for you; even worse is that it does it wrong after so much wasted time in so many cases. The wasting of so much of one's time to beta-test this product is just outrageous. [And waiting to buy the software is just no good, as, in year's past, I was still receiving patches right up to the filing deadline in April!] Completely unfair that this product continues to dominate the market when the IRS/Treasury should simply do-away with all the lobbying Intuit does here in Washington DC each year, and instead should expand its "fillable forms" with a set of free basic interview questions like Virginia and other states make available online.

As far as the specifics of the problem on the Form 6251 not being done correctly, if you are interested, here is my detailed post about this debacle on a thread on TurboTax's Live Community. [YOU SHOULD ALSO READ THE COMMENTS ATTACHED TO THIS REVIEW FOR MY TAKE AS OF 3/12/09 ON HOW EGREGIOUS THIS ERROR HAS BEEN, AS WELL AS COMMENTARY AND OPINION ON INTUIT'S HANDLING OF IT TO DATE.]

Live Community post follows:

FORM 6251 not being generated!
MAJOR ERROR IN TURBOTAX DELUXE 2008!!

My wife and I are attorneys (she is a tax attorney), and once again your software is saying I do not need to submit a Form 6251 when in fact I am REQUIRED by the Form 6251 Instructions to attach a Form 6251 to my return (even though I do not owe AMT this year, the form must still be generated and attached).

I am required to attach the Form 6251 because, per the Instructions: "The total of Form 6251, lines 9 through 28, is negative and line 32 would be greater than line 35 if you did not take into account lines 9 through 28." In my case, all of our home mortgage interest is deductible under the regular tax this year, because all of our home equity debt (which happens to be used for investment) is less than 100K; thus, we do not need to complete the TurboTax questions (under the regular tax) for Investment Interest Expense (i.e., because we already are claiming all of this interest as home mortgage interest, we can not and do not need to take it again as investment interest expense simply because the proceeds happen to be used for investment). Thus, TurboTax correctly does not generate a Form 4952 for the regular tax.

However, under the AMT regime, I need to enter values on lines 4 and 9 of Form 6251 to add the interest on the home equity debt back into my AMT income and then subtract it out of my AMT income as investment interest expense. I realize this is essentially a wash, but it does not exclude me from the requirement of filing the Form 6251. WHY IS TURBOTAX FAILING TO GENERATE AND E-FILE A FORM 6251 IN THIS CASE? Also, TurboTax should be generating a Form 4952-AMT (for my reference only of course), but IT IS NOT GENERATING ONE EITHER.

Clearly, TurboTax's inquiry can't handle a situation where you are not claiming investment interest expense in the regular tax world (because it all qualifies as home equity debt), but then you need to claim it in the AMT tax world. PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP.

TURBOTAX NEEDS TO GENERATE BOTH THE FORM 6251 AND FORM 4952-AMT IN SITUATIONS LIKE MINE.

Follow-up Message from me to TurboTax programmers:

You guys screwed up! Why do I have to beta-test your software every year!?!?!?

I just sent you a detailed problem about Form 6251 not being generated. It turns out that at the beginning of the AMT questionnaire, there is an error in your Form 6251 worksheet programming. In response to the AMT question "Tell Us About Your Mortgage Interest," if I input a lower value for "Interest Paid on an Eligible Mortgage" (as compared to the home mortgage interest value from my regular tax Schedule A), then your software does not enter any "home mortgage interest adjustment" in the worksheet (and on line 4 of a Form 6251). Thus, no Form 6251 is being generated when in fact it is REQUIRED per the instructions to the Form 6251.

Also, in prior years, there was always a question in TurboTax that would then ask you to adjust for any investment interest expense you might be able to claim under the AMT if any of this above ineligible interest happened to be used for investment (and therefore could be subtracted out on Line 9 of Form 6251).

Shame on you TurboTax. I can't even correctly file my return this year until you fix this. I wonder how many people have already filed their taxes without Form 6251, even though they were required to do so (regardless of whether they owe AMT, the Form 6251 must still be attached in these cases).