2022 Tax Program Deals

[sengsational]

I used to start filling out TT with guesses just to figure out where I was at year end. I would have to go back and remove all the guesses once I got my actual tax statements later in February or sometimes March (!). I now also use Dinkytown and it gives me a close enough answer that I just leave TT alone until I have all my documents.

In Block software, you can flag values that are estimates. At the pre-submit audit, you can zip directly to each estimate, tidy-up the value and uncheck the estimate flag. But I get doing an estimate online is quicker, and good enough to size-up the year.

 

[38Chevy454]

Been getting it for free for at least 5-7 years but this year, it's only "up to $20 off."

Same here, have been getting it free for many years. Now only the $20 offer. I guess being all self directed Fidelity is sending me a message.

Another kind of funny, on my home page it no longer lists my advisor. Advisor is still there at my local office, and is still assigned to me, but now it does not have his name and contact info. Just the generic PCG. Another Fidelity sending me a message?

I might just switch to TaxAct over TurboTax this year if i have to buy it out of pocket. TT prices are increasing each year, just been immune from the cost since fidelity offered it free.

 

[audreyh1]

I think the TurboTax prices have been quite stable for many years and you can still get Deluxe, which is all you need, for $35-40 discounted.

 

[COcheesehead]

Same here, have been getting it free for many years. Now only the $20 offer. I guess being all self directed Fidelity is sending me a message.

Another kind of funny, on my home page it no longer lists my advisor. Advisor is still there at my local office, and is still assigned to me, but now it does not have his name and contact info. Just the generic PCG. Another Fidelity sending me a message?

I might just switch to TaxAct over TurboTax this year if i have to buy it out of pocket. TT prices are increasing each year, just been immune from the cost since fidelity offered it free.

I don’t have an advisor listed either, but I got the free TT. So the mystery continues.

 

[Spock]

I don’t have an advisor listed either, but I got the free TT. So the mystery continues.

Same as far as the listed advisor... Fidelity took the name of my assigned advisor off the summary page so I figured it had been changed again. When I had some questions, I went surfing the bios, made an appt with the guy who looked the oldest and we had the obligatory hour long "getting to know you" chat.

All of the sudden I'm getting overtures from the prior advisor and his minions, with the minons offering to kiss my grits to help open a brokerage account for the family trust. Turns out they were worthless as the Fidelity back office rejected the paperwork that the minion filled out and that I drove 40 miles to get notarized at the "local" office. They have a nice waiting room though.

 

[Dtail]

I don’t have an advisor listed either, but I got the free TT. So the mystery continues.

Indeed, as I do have an advisor, but am DIY and still get it for free.

 

[eytonxav]

Same here, have been getting it free for many years. Now only the $20 offer. I guess being all self directed Fidelity is sending me a message.

Another kind of funny, on my home page it no longer lists my advisor. Advisor is still there at my local office, and is still assigned to me, but now it does not have his name and contact info. Just the generic PCG. Another Fidelity sending me a message?

I might just switch to TaxAct over TurboTax this year if i have to buy it out of pocket. TT prices are increasing each year, just been immune from the cost since fidelity offered it free.

Same here. I sent them a message last week about the free offer and still no answer.

 

[CardsFan]

All packages have all the forms. The difference is just in the interview help. If you’re savvy enough to know what forms you need, like from prior year, you could get by with basic. I need Premier according to Intuit but I use Deluxe and just do a couple things directly on forms.

I have been using Premier for the last several years, but am tempted to give Deluxe a try. I am curious what things you need to do directly on the forms?

 

[audreyh1]

I have been using Premier for the last several years, but am tempted to give Deluxe a try. I am curious what things you need to do directly on the forms?

Honestly, in my experience with TT Deluxe (Mac) we didn’t have to do anything manually. The brokerage data imported and automatically filled out all the Schedule D part and I’m pretty sure you could see the capital gains stuff in the step questions also as we walked through checking stuff. So it was a total non-issue.

Also handles foreign tax credit no problem.

 

[CardsFan]

Honestly, in my experience with TT Deluxe (Mac) we didn’t have to do anything manually. The brokerage data imported and automatically filled out all the Schedule D part and I’m pretty sure you could see the capital gains stuff in the step questions also as we walked through checking stuff. So it was a total non-issue.

Also handles foreign tax credit no problem.

Thanks. I used to use Deluxe years ago, but switched to Premier when I was exercising stock options. Sounds like a switch back is in order.

 

[JoeWras]

Thanks. I used to use Deluxe years ago, but switched to Premier when I was exercising stock options. Sounds like a switch back is in order.

The only thing Premier helped me back in the day was with NQSO, RSU and ESPP. Even then, you could do it with Deluxe, you just might have to do a few things manually or make a decision without a question.

 

[easysurfer]

No freebie for me. I use TT Deluxe.

According to my camelcamelcamel pricewatch Deluxe at Amazon is still $16 above what I'm willing to pay. I do expect a price drop by end of year if the pattern holds as usual .

 

[audreyh1]

Thanks. I used to use Deluxe years ago, but switched to Premier when I was exercising stock options. Sounds like a switch back is in order.

We switched back to Deluxe for 2 years 2019 and 2020 taxes I think. No problem going back and forth between Deluxe and Premier.

 

[braumeister]

I have never been able to find any difference, so it seems to me that Premier is simply Deluxe by a different name and a higher price. There may be a few differences in the interview, but probably no meaningful difference for 90% of us.

 

[Cobra9777]

It would appear that I too have been kicked out of the club after 7 years. I'm still PCG but I no longer have an assigned rep. And now, no free TurboTax Premiere. I sent a secure message to PCG asking about TurboTax and got the same canned response that someone else posted:

I hope this message finds you safe and well. Thank you for contacting us regarding free TurboTax Premier online. I am happy to help you today.

Each year we have a certain number of free TurboTax offers that we are able to extend to our customers. Although you may have had the opportunity to utilize this offer in the past, we were unable to offer it to you this year. We value your business and certainly apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The good news is that we are able to offer you up to $20 off of TurboTax online. You can locate a link to this offer through your "Accounts & Trade" tab under "Tax Forms & Information.”

I responded and asked if they could provide a "goodwill cash credit" to help offset the cost of purchasing the software. They very politely said no.

For next year, I think I'm going to ask if they can assign me a PCG rep... and then have a couple phone calls with him/her. I think part of the TT formula is having a relationship with a PCG adviser. That's how it all started for me in 2015. I asked a phone rep if I qualified for PCG and if I could be assigned a rep to speak with a couple times a year. Never asked about TT, but I got the offer every year after that. Until now.

 

[Texas Proud]

This is one of the reasons that I think Vanguard stopped giving it free... you get little benefit from the people who get it free and a lot of bad feelings from the ones who do not...


I would love to get it for free but will not be... also have to spend big bucks for the business for my mom's estate... one last year though..

 

[audreyh1]

It would appear that I too have been kicked out of the club after 7 years. I'm still PCG but I no longer have an assigned rep. And now, no free TurboTax Premiere. I sent a secure message to PCG asking about TurboTax and got the same canned response that someone else posted:



I responded and asked if they could provide a "goodwill cash credit" to help offset the cost of purchasing the software. They very politely said no.

For next year, I think I'm going to ask if they can assign me a PCG rep... and then have a couple phone calls with him/her. I think part of the TT formula is having a relationship with a PCG adviser. That's how it all started for me in 2015. I asked a phone rep if I qualified for PCG and if I could be assigned a rep to speak with a couple times a year. Never asked about TT, but I got the offer every year after that. Until now.

Yeah, pretty much. I went advisor-less or representative-less for several years. Was premium services/PCG whatever so got the software free for several years until they tightened up on offering the perk and I was dropped. An advisor called me a couple of years later and assigned himself to me, and I started getting the perk again.

But we were fine with Deluxe discounted when free Premiere wasn’t offered, so I don’t really care that much anymore.

 

[MichaelB]

As I remember it, all the versions handle almost all the all same tax forms for personal taxes. There are 2 main differences between versions. First, the higher tier versions include TurboTax interview prompts and dialog to complete the different forms. Second, any form filled manually is not covered by the “Accurate calculation guarantee”. From the terms of service https://turbotax.intuit.com/corp/license/online/

The Accurate Calculation Guarantee does not apply to tax forms completed in which the data is entered directly by you, rather than through the use of the in-product TurboTax interview guidance.

It’s impossible to say how meaningful this difference is. People who are comfortable filling out the forms manually probably don’t need the interview prompts, and I’m skeptical about the guarantee.

 

[Gumby]

I could do my taxes entirely by hand and really don't need the "interview". I use the program because it populates all the forms for me and makes sure I don't forget anything or make a stupid math error. And if I ever decide to e-file, it will be necessary.

 

[JoeWras]

I could do my taxes entirely by hand and really don't need the "interview". I use the program because it populates all the forms for me and makes sure I don't forget anything or make a stupid math error. And if I ever decide to e-file, it will be necessary.

So even with the interview, you can answer the question wrong, like I did. The interview seems to be adding less and less value for me. I easily defeat the "This is not common" warning a few times per filing.

Last year I had a brain glitch during the 1099-R section and encouraged by the interview, I pushed the magic button to make my 401(k) to Roth 401(k) conversion "go away."

It was awesome! Free income! I was feeling so good about my session with Turbotax, that I filed that baby.

A few weeks later I was considering some tax loss harvesting and pulled out my program to look at some things. I was expecting to see a nice chunk of Roth conversion income, and it wasn't adding up. Whoops! I pressed the nice prompt to make the conversion a tax neutral "transfer".

At least Turbotax made filing the amended form easy. Did it electronically too, for no extra charge. But I'm in line behind Midpack and others still waiting for their refunds. I'm waiting for my penalty (I did pay the extra tax).

 

[Jerry1]

Yeah, TT is a bit like a GPS. You should have a good idea where you’re heading before you rely on the program. It’s very helpful but it’s no replacement for general knowledge of how your taxes are to be filed. When I have new stuff in my tax return, I put it into TT and analyze what changed in my tax calculation. I’ve never found TT to be wrong, but I feel the need to understand it’s calculations before I file my return.

 

[audreyh1]

I do my own tax planning near end, in more detail if I’m paying annualized estimated income taxes. So I already have a very good idea of what to expect and can do detailed comparisons when we review. DH runs TurboTax then we review.

I tried to use what-if form this year but TT did not use the correct 2022 standard deduction so it wasn’t helping! I went back to my old spreadsheets.

 

[COcheesehead]

Yeah, TT is a bit like a GPS. You should have a good idea where you’re heading before you rely on the program. It’s very helpful but it’s no replacement for general knowledge of how your taxes are to be filed. When I have new stuff in my tax return, I put it into TT and analyze what changed in my tax calculation. I’ve never found TT to be wrong, but I feel the need to understand it’s calculations before I file my return.

So true. TT had a checkbox regarding if some of my capital gains were considered for special treatment. Nothing more than that. I knew they were and checked the box which opened up another set of forms that ended up saving me a bunch. Without understanding that checkbox, I would have paid a lot more.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Losing a little faith in FreeTaxUSA. I put in a bogey for planning with my expected DIV and CG income as well as 1099-MISC "business" income for which it correctly calculated Self-Employment tax so it knows I have "earned" income. I also put in an IRA contribution for the amount of that earned income. I should be eligible for the Retirement Saving Credit given my AGI but it didn't show that. On a whim, I put in a fake W-2 with earnings and no tax WH to see if it would calculate the credit with W-2 income and it actually increased my expected refund but still didn't show the credit. After doing that, my 1099-MISC income dropped even though it is still entered on the entry page (it was there before). I may end up buying HR afterall... I'll keep an eye out for the late Dec price drop. Maybe FreeTAXUSA will update and work better but I'm a bit leary at this point.

 

[Midpack]

Just got a flyer from Costco, TurboTax discounts effective 12/28 thru 1/22. Makes download versions of Deluxe Fed $36.99, Deluxe Fed+State $44.99 and Premier Fed+State $64.99.

I think Amazon may have even better prices at some point - same/similar to above with a $10 Amazon gift card included, essentially $10 less than Costco (unless you don’t plan to buy anything on Amazon).