Which Tax Preparation Software would you most recommend for individual use?

[couriers]

Trying to help a friend without having to do a lot of research on the subject. He is looking for something that is easy to use and would best suit a single 30 something working for the man. Thank.

[Craptacular]

I use TaxCut (Deluxe I think). It's does the job fairly easily.

Whoops, I accidentally hit TurboTax Deluxe. Doh!!! Make sure you hit the correct choices in TaxCut or Uncle Sam is gonna stick a flaming audit up your a$$.

[couriers]

My main concern with recommending TurboTax is with all the spyware that has been reported. Should this be an issue or has it been resolved?

[Tarkus]

Read this thread.

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5492

Tarkus

[wbonnell]

I'm pretty happy using the online-only version of turbo tax. Indeed, I've used it for the last 4 years (it was orginally secure tax). Of course, you have to get past the fear of storing your financial information online...

[couriers]

Tarkus,

I had read that thread and didn't really find much along the lines of recommendations. There were a few that had stressed their positive experiences with TurboTax but there were no concrete comparisons to go by. Most of the talk focused around copy protection, which is not a concern. TurboTax seems like the popular choice but I figured it wouldn't hurt to run a poll and see for certain. Thanks again.

wbonnell,

TurboTax Online does seem highly regarded however my friend doesn't want to display his financial information in such detail on the web. Maybe if he was a little more involved with the Internet then he might realize just how secure it can be but being as it is I don't feel very comfortable convincing him of this. Some things are better left to discover on your own. Thanks for the advice though.

[couriers]

Tarkus,

I just finished reading several other articles that were linked to the one posted in your thread and they were very informative. Thanks again for getting me to reread what I had already passed off as over & done with.

[PilotMan]

Originally posted by wbonnell
I'm pretty happy using the online-only version of turbo tax. Indeed, I've used it for the last 4 years (it was orginally secure tax). Of course, you have to get past the fear of storing your financial information online...

ditto on this 4 years running great results and great prices.

[rwprice]

Here's a good alternative, and you can't beat the price: free! TaxAct Standard edition is available as a free download at www.taxact.com. I've used this for a few years, and it's a fine program. The free version is probably not suitable if you've got some complicated situations, but even the Deluxe version is only $9.95, and that one includes all the bells and whistles.

I use the standard one myself, and it works just fine. Plus, no spyware!

Even if you don't use it, you can't go wrong in checking it out.

[Daimyo]

TaxCut was a great value, back in january when they had all the "free after rebate" deals. Without that I don't think I would use it though considering you pay $25 for the software and then $10 to file plus $25 for the state version and another $15 to file. Without the rebates that would be like $75.. might as well go to a preparer. With the rebates it was a great deal for $25 combined though.