TurboTax flops when it comes to the mildly complex

TurboTax had proved to me it is useless for anything but the mundane.

I had first used TurboTax in 2006 despite the fact that our taxes were fairly basic (no mortgage, no huge deductions, no home business, no kids...). My main motivation in buying it was because I wanted all of my addition to be correct (as I'm horrible with numbers) and wanted to make sure my husband's mix of military and civilian income was calculated correctly. TurboTax handled this fine as far as I am concerned and I enjoyed its "dumbed-down" tax approach.

This year our taxes promised to be more complex, including the purchase of a house and various work deductions for my husband. I went through the program as usual, but when it came to deductions, things went horribly wrong. Despite claiming a purchased home, charity, and work deductions, the program told me again and again that we had no deductions made. In the end, it told me I owed the Feds approx $1100 dollars. Terrified and confused I then took the same information I had entered in TurboTax and TurboTax's forms to an actual CPA with a lifetime in the business. He was boggled at what TurboTax had done, assuring me that these numbers were all wrong and the forms it had put them on were incorrect. When we were finished, the CPA saved us about $500 and told us why we owed at all (wrong info on the W-2) which TurboTax was no help with.

While I hate to bring in outside "hearsay," I also spoke with my brother who attempted to use the same program since he now has a home business. TurboTax told him he owed $1100 in Federal too... plus $4000 in state. He too saw a real CPA who told him the exact same thing. His TurboTax had actually deducted his car three times.

In closing, when I contacted their customer service line to find out how to claim my "Satisfaction Guarenteed" refund, I was asked for private information that there's no way they should have needed. They claimed they needed my private information to "pull my file." No way.