TurboTax Review 2017 - A Great Option In 2018 - YouTube

Hey guys, it's Robert from the College Investor here and I am excited to dive into Turbo Tax

2017. We are going to dive in and do a mock tax return today and talk about a little bit

about Turbo Tax and why we like it so much. Honestly, Turbo Tax is always a standout when

it comes to tax filing software, and this year is no different. The big thing with Turbo

Tax though, is that if you qualify for the free version, they do put some limitations

on what you can do and that's the only reason why we actually rank Turbo Tax as our number

two favorite tax software this year. H & R Block does edge them out and you can read,

or see more about that, read more about that in our H & R Block video and our H & R Block

review, but we're talking about Turbo Tax today and how awesome it is.

Here we are on their home screen, and you can see that Turbo Tax has four different

versions. They have their Absolute Zero version right here, which, honestly, is free, but

it's for simple returns so 1040EZ or 1040A. Where people get into problems with this Absolute

Zero addition is a lot of low-income filers might qualify for the earned income tax credit,

child care tax credit, things like that, you're going to have to move to this Deluxe version

to get deductions and credits. You're not going to get that in the Absolute Zero version.

You can see your prices start moving up. Now if you have any investments or rental

property, you're going to be needing to use the Premiere version, and if you're self-employed,

or a side hustler, freelancers, small business owners, independent contractors, you need

to use this Self-employed version. Now as you can see, I've been to the Turbo Tax website

a couple times, so I'm getting a discounted price showing on my screen here. If you go

to the link below the video here or if you're watching this on my review page, we have a

link to a special. Amazon always runs a special every year, and honestly, I think the Amazon

pricing is usually the best, but Turbo Tax does run sales and stuff, so keep that in

mind that you might get a better deal not coming directly to their website.

How do you get started? How does it look this year? Let's dive in and file our taxes for

free. I've used Turbo Tax, I'm going to come in, I'm going to login, it's going to just

ask me for all my stuff here, let's sign in. Boom. Super easy, it's going to pull all my

information up, and let's get to know me. Who am I going to be this year? Man, I always

like making a fun name. I want to be John Wick, because I just watched John Wick and

it's a pretty cool movie. All right, I'm going to be a New Year's baby, and I live in 1902.

Great to meet you, John. Boom. How do you feel about doing your taxes? I feel good,

but I've done this a few times. The cool thing I like about Turbo Tax every year is that

they make their interfaces cute, but also really easy to navigate.

Should I be single or should I be married this year? I am going to be single just to

keep it ... It's complicated. Got it. Later in the personal information we'll gather more

details. That's cool. All right, I'm just going to be single though. I am a ... I do

have children. I've owned a home. We're going to go for that. Then I had a job, I paid student

loan interest, I paid vehicle registration fees, I made donations to charity, and I had

a bank account interest. Why not? Cool. There's some information about me. Let's rock and

roll. Loading. Loading. Loading. All right. Cool. Let's run through, get some personal

information here, John Wick we're going to make ... It might get mad. Yeah, it always

gets mad, it's like they know. I'm just going to still making that one up. They might get

mad. Occupation? Amazing person. All right. Am

I a member of the armed services? No. I lived in California? Yes. Then they just have a

couple random questions here that are slightly out of the screen, but nothing out of the

ordinary. It asks if I am preparing this on John's behalf, because he died. He did not

die, he's right here. Yes, I have children to support. My child. I'm going to call this

Jane Wick. Why not? She was born on New Year's day this year. Why not? Boom. My daughter

and there we go. Boom. How many months did Jane live with me? The whole year. [inaudible

00:05:09] US. Do any of these apply? No. Okay, we know Jane is a baby, but we have to ask,

did she pay for most of her living expenses? No. Do you have an agreement with Jane's other

parents? No. Where did Jane did spend most of its time? My home. No, I'm not letting

her other parents claim her. No, no other relative didn't live in my home.

All right. Jane qualifies me for a tax break. Cool. What's Jane social? There we go. Cool.

There we go. It's entering my mailing address, 1555 [Wilsonian 00:16:15] Diego Avenue. Perfect.

That's great. No, I did not make money in any other states. Did you pay more than half

the cost to keep your home? Yes, I did pay half the cost to keep my home. I'm going to

be a head of household this year. See, this is what I like, this software picks it out

for you based on all your different things. If you go to some of the other tax software

options, you have to pick whether you're single or head of household, and you might not know.

Turbo Tax really does make it easy to do this. They do have these up-sales, you could speak

with somebody and you can pay for things. We're not going to do it, we're just going

to keep with the free addition. Let's just get going here so you can see what

it looks like. No, no, no. We'll start my W-2. Working on my W-2's. You can import on

Turbo Tax, which is super easy, which is awesome, but I don't have an import because I'm just

making this up as we go. My employer name is Super Awesome Company, and they're going

to be at 500 San Diego Avenue, San Diego, California, 911 ... All right. Then how much

did I make in wages? Always a good question. I made 62714. Why not? My federal tax withheld

was do, do do. I paid 10126 and then 62714, and social security tax withheld is ... Man,

I should have planned this out a little better when I started prepping. We're going to do

5461, I'm going to carry 62714. We're going to do 2229. Boom. They're going to get mad

at me because something's probably wrong here. State wages is going to be 62714, and how

much do we pay in state tax? 3397. Perfect. Great. I get a refund of 5,000 bucks so far.

388 ... All right. Now I'll have Turbo Tax fixes it for me. Medicare. All right. Do I

have any of these uncommon situations? No. None of these. Cool. Glad we got that fixed.

Do I have another W-2 to enter? No. Done. Then I'm going to say I got some interest.

Did you receive any interest income? Yes. You can connect your banks here, which is

super awesome. I'm just going to do USAA. All right. I'm going to type it in myself.

I'm going to receive from USAA and I'm going to say I received $102 in interest. Why not?

None of these situations apply. Did you have any interest from a bank or brokerage? No.

Done. Wrap up income. Do you own or control a foreign bank? I don't. All right, let's

dig into my tax breaks, see if I get saved. Did I have any medical expense deductions,

tax preparation fees? I did not, but you could deduct your tax preparation fees if you need

to. Now, it's time for the fun part. Did I pay any mortgage interest? Yes, I did. Yes,

I did pay on a home loan. I'm going to say Wells Fargo. And I co-own this loan with somebody

else? None of these apply. How much mortgage interest did I pay? $8,800. How much property

tax did I pay? $6,200. Perfect. Nope. Great. I get to save even more money, I think, maybe.

Yep. Bam. Look at my refund going up there. Property taxes, this needs review. Okay. Congratulations,

you get a tax break. Okay. I get 1,000 bucks there. Donations to charity? I did donate.

Who did you donate to? I'm going to say Red Cross. I gave $20. Done. I wonder what that

changes? Okay. Gave me another dollar off my taxes. That's great.

Car registration fees? I did pay a car registration fee. I don't have a car anymore. Acura TL.

I paid $158. I'm at 6352. My $158 raises that to 6375. I made another 25 bucks. All right.

Student loan interest. Did I make my student loan interest? Yes. My name of my lender?

Who should my lender be? We'll say Navient because no one likes Navient right now. I

paid them $1,200 in interest. Perfect. That's going to jack my refund up too. Bam. Look

at that thing go up. All right. I am done. Wrap up tax breaks. Continue. They're checking,

checking, checking for every possible tax break. No, I didn't pay for any child care.

Let's find out if for the future ... No, I'm not going to do that. That seems like a lot.

All right. Here's where they get you. This is what I

want to show you guys. If your current refund with the standard deduction would be 5167,

but if you itemize with Turbo Tax Deluxe, you go up to 6555, so, of course, I want to

get a bigger tax refund, but they charge you. I have to upgrade to Deluxe if I want to get

my tax refund and do everything the right way on here. That's what my big drawback is

with Turbo Tax and why H & R Block is our current favorite this year because they allow

a lot of these deductions and tax credits to take place on their free version, so keep

that in mind. Yes, I was covered. Let me just finish this up. No. No. No. I was not. Cool.

Other tax situations, I shouldn't have any of this stuff. I'm just going to be done with

other. All right, now we can skip AMT. Then we're pretty much done. We just go right into

the state. It transfers everything over, and we're pretty much done.

Yes, I filed in California. No, a different name was not used last year. Did you make

a tax payment? No. No. Continue. All right. Anything special? Nothing really. Did you

pay rent for at least ... Nope. No. No. Skip that. Continue. Nope, I don't. Cool. Done.

Done. All right. Let's check it over. Cool. We're just a little early. You can start e-filing

here at the beginning of January. You can see how quick and easy Turbo Tax is. They

make this thing really easy to file. They make it super easy to figure out what you

need. The big drawback though, is that pricing of the free plan to the Deluxe plan. Now,

is it super expensive on their Deluxe? No, but it's more expensive than other options

for the same prices and it just really grinds my gears that they don't have as much free

stuff as they should and H & R Block online does.

If you have your choice between the two and you're not sold on one, and you're on a free

file, take advantage of H & R Block's free filing, zero dollar returns. Turbo Tax is

great. They have the best interface. They make their tax filing super easy, so we do

love them. They're our number two favorite, but you will get more value of free on H & R

Block for your taxes this year. All right. I hope you found that valuable. Please leave

a comment, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or leave a comment on the review, if you're

reading this on the blog, let us know your thoughts. All right, guys. Thank you very

much.