With filing season just around the corner, the tax software wars are heating up.
Earlier this week, MousePrint (sister site to ConsumerWorld.org) issued a “Warning for TurboTax Users.” According to the site, “[r]egular purchasers ofIntuit INTU -2.07%’s TurboTax Deluxe, the top selling desktop tax preparation software program, are in for a nasty surprise this year.” That surprise, according to the website, was that the “full interview sections (Q&As) for filling out Schedule C (self-employment income and all expenses), Schedule D (investments), and Schedule E (rental and partnership income) are no longer in TurboTax Deluxe.” Rather, they require an upgrade to the “Premier” and higher editions.
ConsumerWorld.org founder Edgar Dworsky said about the change, “What a clever ploy. Yank out key parts of the program that people have used for years, and then charge them more money to get back the missing pieces. Imagine the reaction of perhaps millions of regular TurboTax users who may learn partway through doing their taxes that they have to pay an upgrade fee just to get the same functionality they’ve always enjoyed. They are not going to be happy.”
According to Dworsky, Intuit did not do enough to let consumers know about the changes. Some users agree. On Amazon.com, complaints began piling up as reviewers took to the internet to voice their frustrations.
