I’ve been using TaxSlayer for the past few years since I was trained on it for VITA and I like that you can jump around to your own forms rather than being ‘guided’.
But, they have a software issue with our schedule H and tech support has been ‘looking into it’ for 2 months with no resolution. It also isn’t recording my spouses K-1 when I enter it into the software.
So, then I tried FreeTaxUSA and it is correctly dealing with the schedule H and K-1. BUT it’s messing up our 1099R backdoor Roths and reporting an extra $12K of taxable income which is a really big mistake!
So, does anyone know of a software that’s relatively cheap and can do all three of these correctly:
Schedule H for a ‘credit-reduction state’
K-1 partnership income/loss
Backdoor Roth 1099R with taxable amount different from total distribution amount
I tried TaxSlayer too since I was also VITA trained, to save about $20. I had already started with TurboTax so I had an easy side-by-side comparison. TurboTax beat Taxslayer by literally hundreds of dollars and I decided I didn’t want to spend the time to try and replicate the results in Taxslayer.
I know TurboTax will do the K-1 and backdoor Roth; I have no experience with the Sch H for a credit-reductions state though.
I also acknowledge that at this date, it’s not cheap.
Yeah, the reality is that if TurboTax can do what I need, it’s still probably cheaper than hiring a CPA and less likely for me to make a mistake than doing the whole thing by hand.
No idea where you keep your investments, but if they’re at Fidelity look at the offers on the front page…in some cases they’re offering federal+one state filing through TurboTax for free.