TurboTax: Many Happy Returns?

For tons of taxpayers, including me, tax time is not particularly a good time. That’s why I contacted Intuit, manufacturers of TurboTax, to see if they could help me get more into it…

Dear Tax Experts:

I wrote TurboTax at Intuit headquarters and didn’t hear back. Maybe they were too busy with tax season to bother. Now I’m trying to get ready for next year’s tax season and found this address for customer support, so I thought I’d file another letter. I hope you won’t find my questions too taxing and will help me figure things out.

Does TurboTax tax preparation software work for people that are really awful at math? I’m so bad, that when I was in college, I had to attach cash to the accounting work I submitted with a note to the professor asking him to please accept it to cover the missing funds. It just reached the point where I would rather have eaten rancid sushi than continue to look for the missing money, which I never would have found anyway without paying off another accounting student.

The tagline for TurboTax is, “Choose Easy.” Is that really true? I would hate to find out during an IRS audit that what I really chose was, “Unintentional Embezzling.” I know lots of people are in jail for cheating on their taxes, but do you have any idea how many of them used TurboTax and didn’t even have a clue they were cheating?

How easy is TurboTax to learn for a grown adult who isn’t Smarter than a 5th Grader in math? Is it foolproof? When it comes to numbers, I really am a fool and there is plenty of proof. Your website says, “Get your biggest tax refund, guaranteed.” Do you also guarantee I won’t end up doing a stretch of 5 to 10 in a white-collar prison?

TurboTaxly yours,
“Me”

A Consumer Group – TurboTax Representative responded with:

Thank you for contacting TurboTax to inquire about our product. Let me assure you that TurboTax is designed for users that are not tax, or mathematic experts. You can refer to the website www.turbotax.com for all current information on our product.

Final Thoughts

Even if TurboTax is meant to be an asset, I’m concerned about unintentionally turning it into a liability. Let’s face it; word processing software is also easy to use. But just because you type words into it, that doesn’t make you a great writer. So, I assume you can’t just plug a bunch of numbers into TurboTax, get your biggest tax refund, and add the title of Tax Preparer to your resume to pick up a few bucks freelancing during tax season.

When it comes to filing taxes, even Albert Einstein was quoted as saying; “This is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher.” My philosophy is that it’s always better to keep a smart accountant on call rather than a bail bondsman. If you already use, or are considering using TurboTax, you might find this Law Blog piece from The Wall Street Journal enlightening, “Tax Court: If You’re Gonna Use TurboTax, Use It Correctly.”

It seems like tax time is always right around the corner and it’s a responsibility that most people try not to evade. Here’s where you can learn more about TurboTax. Although, if you’re trying to figure out whether using a certain product will add up for you, it might pay to do some research and Write The Company.

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Update

Companies I contact have no idea I’m Write The Company or that I’m posting my letters and their responses online. When TurboTax discovered my tweet about this post, they immediately tweeted this terrific customer service follow through…

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