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View Full Version : TaxAct vs Turbotax


aliaricam3
Jan 15, 2008, 11:11 AM
Hello, I was wondering why I would get 2 different amounts in Turbotax and Taxact, Taxact is showing $120 (refund) more than Turbotax. I checked 3 times to make sure all amounts are the same and correct.

AtlantaTaxExpert
Jan 15, 2008, 11:42 AM
Is there any carryover from a previous year?

In other words, did you import a previous return from a TurboTax or TaxCut file from 2006? If so, it would automatically carry over items for depreciation on a Schedule C or Schedule E.

Also, if you itemized in 2006 and got a state tax refund for 2006, that state tax refund is TAXABLE INCOME for 2007. Both TaxCut and TurboTax would automatically carry that information over to the new tax year.

aliaricam3
Jan 15, 2008, 11:49 AM
No there is no carryover, also how come you have to include a state refund as income? I do not think I ever did before.

Fr_Chuck
Jan 15, 2008, 12:02 PM
And I guess I have to ask, why did you buy both programs and run them ?

aliaricam3
Jan 15, 2008, 12:06 PM
I did not buy them, I get to do my taxes free because I made under $54000. I was just curious.

KISS
Jan 15, 2008, 12:10 PM
In the early tays of TurboTax, I found serious errors that occurred under unusual circumstances that resulted in mistakes of thousands of dollars of AGI.

I had the HARDEST tine convincing Turbotax that they were WRONG. That's what annoyed me.

Last year's program wasn't oo bad, but it hid the functioning details under the hood. If you were familiar with previous programs thanks made sense. I think a first-time user would get hopelessly confused and lost.

Last year's program would only print to your default printer and it doesn't give you time to stop it. So, when that printer is 30 miles away and not in a secure location, it can be a problem. Actually, "Adobe PDF" is my default printer.

AtlantaTaxExpert
Jan 15, 2008, 12:48 PM
The state refund is taxable income because you deducted ALL of your withheld state income taxes on Schedule A.

If they did not make the refund taxable, people would OVER-WiTHHOLD their state income taxes to ridiculous amounts, deduct that withholding as an itemized deductions, then get most of the withholding back as a tax-free refund in the following year.