Intuit recommends TurboTax Home & Business for the self-employed.

The program can upload information directly from many brokers, quickly and accurately, which is incredibly convenient.

It calculates losses and gains on stocks, bonds, mutual funds and employee stock plans, and calculates rental property income, expenses, and refinancing issues.

Turbotax recommends the Premier Edition, which has all the features of Deluxe plus more tools to deal with investments and rental property, to people who have stocks and bonds or rental income.

It includes many tax forms, but not Schedule D. It has all the features of Basic, plus Deduction Maximizer, a feature that searches for over 350 different deductions and credits, and ItsDeductible, which will help you accurately value charitable donated items.

We used the Deluxe Editionlater when our kids were older and we had more different kinds of deductions.

This is the cheapest version of TurboTax that you can get on a CD, but TurboTax also has two free online versions (see below). Poof! Taxes done! Available on Amazon for about $30.

The Basic Edition fit my needs when my income was from W-2s and interest on savings (back when banks paid interest) and my deductions were few and straightforward.

Either version will update itself online after installing.

I am speaking here of the four CD/Download versions that both TurboTax and Amazon sell, which let you install Turbotax on your computer using a CD or download. As I said, I have used all four of these, at different stages of my life, and found them all well worth it. In fact, all versions but Freedom Edition charge you for e-filing state returns.įour Tiers of Features: Basic, Deluxe, Premier, and Home & BusinessĮach version of TurboTax adds a tier of features to the next cheapest version, based on your tax preparation needs. Many with higher income but simple taxes can use the totally different online 'TurboTax Free Edition,' though it isn't as friendly as paid versions, because it begs you to upgrade to higher versions, and charges you for downloading your past information, for advice, and for preparing state returns.

People who make less than $39,000 ($72,000 for active military), or those eligible for an Earned Income Credit, can use the non-publicized online ' TurboTax Freedom Edition' even if they are self-employed or use extra schedules. Even self-employed people, and others with more than basic tax needs, may be able to get away with a cheaper version than what Intuit recommends. I have used the Basic, Deluxe, Premier, and Home & Business versions over the years, based on what was going on in my life, and have been equally satisfied with each version.īut you can't be sure you need the extra features you pay for in the higher-level versions.

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