What Is the Difference Between Turbo Tax Online and Buying It at the Store??

These are the main differences (I'm a loyal Turbo Tax user!):

Downloading the online version means you don't pay a thing until you actually file your taxes. If you get halfway through and find out you hate it, or decide to bring your paperwork to a tax preparer, you haven't wasted any money. Purchasing the disc at a store of course means that even if you don't file through Turbo Tax, you've still spent that money.

The online version uses less memory and space on your computer's hard drive.

Using the online version means you can sit down at any computer and access your taxes. My dh is away for his job and he can open his laptop across the country and input his job-related expenses, and I can be at home and input all the medical expenses, for example. If you buy it in a store, you can only use it at the computer you install it on.

The online version digitally stores your tax returns and you can access older years if you need to. The disc version requires you to store your tax returns on a CD or hard drive, or you can print them.

I respectfully disagree with many below. Last year I did the online version. There was a particular place where I could tell there was a mistake, but I couldn't figure out what number was incorrect on the online version. I was online with a support person from TT, and they remotely downloaded what would have been the purchased version onto my computer. The features were different, and using that version I could see where it misclassified on of the items on my W2. So, I do like TT, but I will always buy it in the store now because that version is more user friendly.

This isn't answering your question, but because you use the online version, I think you should look at taxactonline.com. It's less than $20 to file state & federal taxes. We've been using that site for years. It's very user friendly. If I ever have a question, I email them & I always get an email back within 24 hrs. (That's free--not sure if it's the same with TT.)

They are exactly the same but depending on sales you can find it cheaper one way or the other. I have found Costco to be the cheapest but I don't look very hard.

I've been using online Turbo Tax for the last 6 yrs now and the desktop (bought in store) for 4 years before that and will NOT use another program . As stated before, online is free to use and file if you fall between the income guidelines and if you don't you only pay when you are ready to file the taxes.

One thing I found several years ago is that we qualify for a discount when using Turbo Tax online. We have a Capital One Card credit card and if you log in using the link on the Capital One Card site then we get a big discount on the online program. We use the Home and Business version and that is normally $99.95 but going thru Capital One we get it for $48.70. However if you have already started your taxes using TT online and find a discount link you must then restart the TT under a different login name otherwise you won't get the discount.

Good luck :)

NeeNee

The answers are correct however you do get to take off the cost of the software on your taxes when you file.

The other S.

PS It is a personal choice as to which you want to use.