This year, Tax Day in the United States falls on April 17, 2012. Intuit's TurboTax has long been a favorite of many self-preparing taxpayers and has consistently worked well for Mac users as well (unlike Quicken). For the 2012 tax-filing season, Intuit released two versions of TurboTax for iOS users as well.
One is a stripped down version for the iPhone called TurboTax SnapTax. It's limited to taxpayers who don't have any children or deponents, don't own a home, have income only from a W-2, interest, or unemployment, and make less than $100,000 a year. It includes state and federal e-filing for a $24.99 in-app purchase and is quick and easy.
The other is TurboTax for iPad, a full-featured version of TurboTax, even including the Home & Business version for self-employed payers. Filing fees are all paid via In-App Purchase, with federal returns starting at $49.99 and state returns an additional $39.99. Users have the option to e-file or print out their returns the old fashioned way.
The New York Times' Gadgetwise blog was very impressed with TurboTax for iPad:
Long story short — it was a dream. The app is basically a giant questionnaire, in which you answer hundreds of questions about your financial state of affairs. I had all the necessary paperwork (well, almost — tracking down the Social Security number of my 1-year-old son took about 30 minutes): W-2s, property-tax statement, mortgage interest statement and a 1099 for some non-retirement investments.
The TurboTax app is well designed and well written. It dispenses with jargon and uses plain English. For example, sometimes you are asked a question that sounds odd; the app will point out that this kind of situation is uncommon, reassuring you that it may not apply to you. Filing, payments and refunds can all be handled electronically — which is nice because not only does it cut down on paper, you get your money (if you’re getting a refund) faster.
TurboTax for iPad is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]
TurboTax SnapTax for the iPhone is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
I've tried to do data entry like mileage, expenses, and invoices on my iPad and any time I've tried it seems to take twice as long because of the on screen keyboard and lack of features available in the application's Mac OS counterpart.
As I commented on similar topic on MR a small country like The Netherlands (16-17 million citizen) provide just that for free, on both Windows and Apple OS.
Of course there is nothing wrong with a 3th party developer to just write such a program but for private use I think it's just plain stupid to pay for such an App.
If they are not going to make the price competative then skip it as you have to be stupid to overpay like that....or I guess a 100% mac user (sorry :cool:)
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What he said.
I just did mine for free and I itemized with a 1098, 1099s, Schedule A, Schedule D, and a Form 8888 on taxact.com. Paid them $8 to submit State for me rather than fill it all out again on my state's web site, but that would have been free if I had. I don't see how turbotax is any better than the free alternatives, they all have walk throughs and hand holding to fill your forms out for you.
Is it just so you can say you did your taxes on an iPhone?