Cheap TurboTax Premier Home and Business 2003 (Software) (Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of TurboTax Premier Home and Business 2003

Beware E-Filing With TurboTax
I'm a sole proprietor who has used this version of TurboTax for a few years and liked it immensely in the past. This year though, I got caught by a software glitch that made an unauthorized $2,300 direct debit for this year's first estimated tax payment from my bank account. I'm in graduate school and working less this year, so this hurt. Luckily my bank stuck with me to get the claim processed, but my initial customer service from TurboTax was horrible. They've finally realized their snafu and sent me an email with an actual customer service number to call that doesn't have a $20 fee attached to the call. I called and they promised to refund any overdraft charges and give me a free version of the product for 2004. They say they're fixing the problem, that only .25 percent of their customers had the problem, but I will never e-file through them again. Not sure yet about using TurboTax again.

---

complicated returns? this is your best choice
PC version on Win XP. I only used for my personal return and this is my 3rd year with turbotax product. It is the only one that has any chance of handling more complicated returns with business income- none of the others even listed the forms I need. This year there was a glitch with form 6252- it imported data from last year but did not prompt me in the interview. I called support on tax day and had a live person within a few minutes. Later I used the chat for a follow up question.
service- 5 stars
software- 4 stars
overall value- 5 stars
I completed a complex return and 2 others a little less complex in less than a day. The help window on the side and other pop-ups (on request) answered every question I had (other than software issue) I also recommend "It's deductible" which integrates wonderfully with turbo and pays for itself many times over.

---

opaque and useless
If you need to file a schedule C, or live in New York State, I would suggest spending your money on the services of a tax professional rather than this cripplingly flawed piece of software. (Based on my past years' experiences and several comparative reviews I've seen of the 2003 software packages, TaxCut is even worse!) The interview questions are confusingly worded for Federal, but are completely opaque for State, as if the questions were pulled directly off the state IT-201 form. I thought these programs were supposed to explain things. The help links skip definitions of many key terms, and are almost wholly absent from the State questionnaire, where examples and explanations are most needed, especially when tax is computed differently from the federal rates. What's worse, the State program asks for data that was already entered in the Federal questionnaire without even giving a worksheet or line number to refer to! If you go back to Federal and look it up, watch out: you'll have to answer every State question again to get back to the screen you had reached. There is absolutely no point to using this program. Go see an accountant -- you will thank yourself.