Intuit’s CEO posted a video message on LinkedIn: Sorry Wasn’t Enough. Here’s What We’re Doing Now. Janet Novack wrote on Forbes.com Intuit Cries Uncle, Will Reverse TurboTax Deluxe Changes.
Now the big question: Will those schedules also go back into TurboTax Deluxe Online? Remember the original rationale for the changes was to align the desktop features with online features.
I’m guessing no. Online will stay as-is because there are no Amazon reviews for it. Intuit can say if you want those schedules, you can buy the desktop product instead of doing it online. Maybe people who cared about those schedules already moved from online to desktop last year. That’s why this year’s change to the desktop product met with strong resistance.
What about feature alignment between online and desktop? I guess it’s not as big a deal as they made anyway.
Intuit wanted clear product segmentation. With those schedules in Deluxe, the value proposition for Premier and Home & Business is not very strong. “Better guidance” is a harder sell than “can’t do without.” People see the extra $30 on vague “better guidance” as an unnecessary upsell.
From a product lineup point of view, one could argue Deluxe shouldn’t have had those schedules to begin with. After all, no one has a right to use Deluxe to file those schedules. Then again the more expensive editions could be there just to make Deluxe look like a good deal. It’s well documented that people tend to pick the model in the middle.
Anyway, those are for Intuit’s product and marketing teams to figure out. As a consumer, I pick the product with the right combination of price and features. To me, this year, it’s H&R Block Deluxe. Next year, maybe it’ll be TurboTax Deluxe. It’s great to have competition. Consumers won this round because of competition. However, it looks like they still lost it online.
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ron says
No questions asked, I just changed to H&R Block and $36.
John says
After 10+ years, I made the jump to TaxAct. Got in on the $6 deal for Fed + State. Could not be happier.
I found it be more straightforward than TurboTax, especially when doing the backdoor Roth.
FinancialDave says
I switched to H&R Block and plan to stay there. Lot less aggravation!
fd
financeBuffReader says
H&R doesn’t import tax imports from my financial institution. My plan was to stick it out with Turbo Tax for one more year and hope that H&R expands their financial imports in 2016. So I bought the Turbo Tax Premier plan for $55 + tax. Had I known in advance about Intuit’s change of mind, I would have bought the cheaper Turbo Tax Deluxe.
TJ says
Whered you get premiere for so cheap? It was $69.99 + tax @ Amazon, I always thought they were the cheapest.
Harry Sit says
TJ – It’s $55 now for Prime members. Costco also sells it for $55.
Harry @ PF Pro says
So if i have to file a schedule C I need to either do the home and biz online version of TT or the desktop version of deluxe right?
Harry Sit says
Desktop has always been less expensive with more features. I would just go desktop if I use TurboTax.