Which Is Better, Online Or Desktop ?
Desktop.
Each edition of online TurboTax costs less than its desktop counterpart, but that's its only advantage.
In every other way, desktop is the superior product.
Ownership
You own the desktop software, so you can leave it installed on your computer. The online editions are updated
every year. You never know when you might want to look at the raw data, not just the PDF file.
Import
To import .txf files, you'll need desktop. Same for Quicken and QuickBooks. The online platform does
not handle importing from any of these data sources.
Included Forms
All desktop editions include all forms. But with the online platform, you'll need Premier for
Schedule D (stocks, options, investments, capital assets).
Trade Limits
Active trader ? The online platform has a limit of 500 trades. Desktop editions allow
about 2,200 trades.
Forms View
Both platforms have the step-by-step interview, but only desktop has forms view.
With forms view, you can see what your data looks like on pages that mirror the IRS versions.
You can even edit data directly on the forms.
User Account
Whenever you want to use the online platform, you'll have to login to the system.
With desktop software, you only need to double-click your .tax file.
Security
Do you really want to store your sensitive tax data on TurboTax servers ? With desktop,
your financial data remains on your local machine, protected from any data breach.
Service Downtime
With the online platform, if the TurboTax servers go down, you won't be able to work on your taxes.
And closer to tax time, when more people are online, the system could slow to a crawl.
Your internet service provider could even have an outage. The desktop platform avoids these
types of disruptions.
Alternate Scenarios
With desktop, it's easy to make alternate or what-if scenarios and save them to different .tax files.
Amended Returns
Made a mistake ? Forgot a deduction ? You'll need desktop to file an amended tax return.
State Return
Desktop (Deluxe and higher) includes the state software but not the e-file fee. The online platform charges
for the state software, but the e-file fee is included. The software costs $40 and the e-file fee is $20.
Bottom line, if you need state, you'll save $20 with desktop.
User Experience
The desktop platform provides a much richer user experience. Navigation is dramatically simpler than with the
online platform. Load times for online platform pages are typically slower than desktop software dialogs.
Website
You may already be well aware of the challenges in navigating the TurboTax website. Broken and circular links
can leave you quite frustrated. You might even have trouble figuring out where to login to work on your taxes.
E-Filing
Desktop (Deluxe and higher) lets you e-file up to 5 tax returns from a single purchase. With
the online platform, each purchase is for a single return.