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moneysense.ca, 29/12/08
QuickTax responds to complaints
Last year, QuickTax frustrated a lot of loyal customers by drastically reducing the number of returns that can be filed with the Standard version. This year, Intuit seems to have listened to its customers: the number of returns that can be filed with all flavours of QuickTax is back up to 8 for the 2008 tax year. The marketing message is also much improved: the website now makes it clear that the more expensive Platinum and Unincorporated versions provide “enhanced guidance & tax-saving tips for investments and rental properties”. The pricing structure remains the same — Basic costs $19.99, Standard $39.99, Platinum $69.99 and Unincorporated $99.99. The Standard version should suffice for most users who have a bit of investment, rental property or self-employment income and don’t mind interacting with the forms directly.
moneysense.ca, 29/12/08
Always remember, Studio Tax is free and will also do most normal situations. Why pay for tax software at all? (Small donations would be welcomed). Plus, with Studio tax tou can do the maximum returns the CRA allows (20) per PC you install it on.
I know I’ll keep using ufile for now – no more picking which edition I need and I like doing everything online.
Does anyone have experience with the more expensive versions of quicktax? Do they just have more detailed descriptions of the choices, or do they somehow suggest what you should do?
I used Studio Tax last year and was very impressed with the quick answers to my 2 questions.
Having just turned 60, I understand that UFile is free to me. Anyone tried it that had some complaints?
I would just like to reitirate my warning from previous years that you are taking a chance by giving your financial information to third parties, as opposed to using the software to send it directly from your computer to Revenue Canada.
Most privacy policies say “we won’t abuse your information”, but they reserve the right to change their policies in the future… what happens if someone makes them a better offer as the data grows in value for custom marketing over the years? Especially if they start losing market share?
Even worse, what if, like many companies we would trust, there is a problem and backups go missing or their servers get hacked… that’s a LOT of information that is used for identity theft, social insurance numbers, employers, addresses, medical purchases, etc.
Sure, we haven’t had a problem yet from a tax provider, but I’m sure that’s what all these people thought about their information holders…
http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm
PS: In answer to “why would anyone pay for tax software”… aside from the fact that you are in essence paying when you donate money to compensate the free software providers for their time, the only reason to pay for it is if it saves you enough time to justify the expense. Because of my familiarity with Quicktax and the number of returns I do for family, I easily save a couple hours over doing them with Studiotax, and I value my time at $40 per hour as a rule of thumb when deciding on do-it-yourself vs. paying someone (or in this case, buying a time saver).
I would have no problem paying for QuickTax if it made the process smoother and helped me understand what I was doing (compared to a free option or ufile). Really my problem with it is that the website implies I should get a more expensive version and I don’t fully understand why. Maybe if they had one edition in the middle of the price range I would go for it!
I agree with the comments about StudioTax. I tried it on the recommendation of a reader and liked it very much — only minor quibbles and the developer has said he will look into fixing them this year.
I found UFile annoying and their support is horrible — they offer only e-mail support and it takes forever to get a response.
I agree with Steve that privacy is a huge concern with web-based tax software. Admittedly, corporate security is likely to be better but they are also likely to be juicy targets for cyber-thieves.
SP: The more expensive QuickTax versions have bells and whistles. If you like to interact with CRA forms, the Standard version should be more than sufficient. I’ve tried the more expensive version once and it is not worth paying for, IMO.
Thanks for the comments re: Studio/Ufile. I had used Quicktax the year before and Studio Tax last year and got way better support with Studio Tax. I’ll be sticking with it for another year!
What Quicken did last year with reducing the number of tax returns was the last straw for me. I was already annoyed that Quicken (with my Quicken 2002 Deluxe) discontinued online services such as downloading financial data from bank and investment accounts and that I had to buy a newer version to continue those services. As far as I was concerned, once I pay good money for software, I expect that selected features of the software should not expire, especially not after just five years! I liked the Quicken software and was a loyal user for years, but for my tax preparation last year, I switched to another software package, and I’ll be damned if I switch back now, loyal or not.
I used Quick tax for years but as engel, I have become very annoyed with all things Quicken. I used Studio tax last year and was very impressed. After all, I can easily fill out the forms by hand. Taxes can be complicated but for someone who’s somewhat knowlegeable in their financial matters, it’s quite easy. If it got too complicated I’d use an accountant, not rely on off the shelf software. The convenience of the filling and filing forms electronically is what I go for, and I feel good about donating to Studio tax, rather than feeling screwed by QuickTax.
With the growing popularity of Apple Mac computers and the apparent improved responsiveness from Quicktax, any good news from them about putting out a Mac-compatible version of standard Quicktax?
I utilized Intuit software for family tax returns for about two decades including Cantax, Wintax and Quicktax. Repelled by Intuit’s galloping avarice, last year I sampled competing products and discovered UFile. It does four times the number of returns including ones requiring more costly Quicktax versions for half QuickTax Standard’s price. I liked UFile’s economy, thoroughness, spousal tax return optimization, and pleasing presentation. When I picked up UFile 2008 yesterday the Future Shop salesman commented it was outselling Quicktax by a factor of three.
I also switched to AceMoney. $30 including free lifetime upgrades. No more Quicken upgrade costs.
Intuit’s greed bit them in the ass. It looks good on them!
They got greedy last year and realized it too late. If it was not for their greed, I would have remained a QT customer. But I am not a ST user. ST may not be as flashy as QT, but it does the job. I will continue to support ST going forward.
It would be interesting to see what the impact of their move to 2 returns had on sales last year. A jump to 8 suggests it was material.
Switched to UFile last year – tired of putting up with QuickTax’s “less for more” pricing. UFile spousal comparisons actually identified an issue with our taxes that QuickTax didn’t (or at least didn’t make obvious). Based on our experiences, we are happy to go with UFile again this year.
I switched to UFILE several years ago.
Just got tired of Quicktax’s greedy pricing.
They did the same thing with Quicken, too, and I just switched to Money.
Hey, Paolo – is that a typo? NOT a ST user? Is that supposed to be NOW?- it looks as if you DO like ST… and so do I, I used it last year and got prompt help with my problems from “The Team”. QT is probably the best programme, but Intuit lost my business last year with its stingy policies and misleading advertising – and I heard that the support is hopeless and probably comes from somewhere in India. I agree with CC about UFile – very cumbersome and slow, and lousy support – I don’t like it at all. It’s ST for me again this year.
@Cherry — Ooops. Thanks for the clarification. You are correct, I meant to say I am NOW a user.
On a side note, I was on ST’s site yesterday and the 2008 software is available to be downloaded. They are also making available (at a cost) software for tax professionals (go to the .ca site as opposed to .com).
I also got my tax form from the CRA yesterday.
Even with Intuit’s mea culpa, I’m also off the QT bandwagon (see my website for more info) and I really like the CRA forms approach so StudioTax seems like a good fit. From the small trial run I took with it it looks good. Can’t wait to do my taxes.
Based on info I read here I switched to ST last year and was very pleased. thnx for that
Like most (all?) of you I am staying with the tax program I switched to.
Is anyone going BACK to QT?
I have been using Studio Tax for 4 years.
I love it and I think that Can. Capt. having backed this product last year was a turning point for ST and QT.
Quicktax is now just making a desperate attempt to get those 100K users back…. I hope they fail.
Let this be a lesson to Intuit. Your customers are not as stupid as you think they are! I used to be a Quicken and Quicktax user, but you got greedy and try to shaft your customers. Quicktax 2007 was the last straw. I switched to UFile, and never looked back. You have lost me as a customer PERMANENTLY.
When I asked Intuit to remove my name from their mailing list because I would no longer be using QuickTax due to the “stunt’ they pulled last year, they replied that they have increased the number of allowable returns again this year. Do they think we consumers are stupid? I wouldn’t go back to using QuickTax if they quadrupled the number of allowable returns! Besides, I recently downloaded StudioTax and am quite impressed with it. Haven’t yet made a donation until I’ve used it a bit, but will definitely do so! Hopefully I will became a loyal ST user!
Quick Tax lost me last year and I will not buy it again. I had used for five years but the limit on the number of returns forced me to try UFile. It is one half the price and does returns efficiently.
I left QT last year because of the reduction in the number of returns, and moved to uFile. UF imported my older QT files without problems.
When I noticed QT in stores this year, along with the increase to 8 returns, I thought they had learned from their mistakes, and was prepared to purchase….only to conduct some research and discover that QT 2008 will NOT import UFile 2007 returns. If QuickTax thought they were winning customers back they can exclude this one. It’s UFile for me again this year, and happily.
I have been very disappointed dealing with Intuit. I have been a loyal user of Quicken and QT for over 20 years. I used QT last year for the last time. We have rental income and last year I had to buy the more expensive program just for that. Then I had to buy the new Quicken 2009 since I no longer could download my banking and now they are offering Quicken and QT together for less than I paid for Quicken.
That was the last straw. I appreciate your info about the other software programs. Sounds like ST might be the way to go.
First of all, it is good to know that QuickTax has redeemed its client centered scheme by increasing its provisions on online tax return types, which would definitely cater more clients.
Second, maintaining the same prices across the programs and variants make it even more wonderful as there are no schemes to be doubted behind such a wonderful product.
For those who have not tried QuickTax yet, I suggest you try it and see why many million people use it.
Methinks “Tim Whiteman” is a ringer.
Why is everyone so negative about Intuit? I, for one, am grateful to them. If they hadn’t ruined Quicken a couple years back (remember that very nice forced upgrade to continue my online banking?), I would never have discovered Moneydance. And if it wasn’t for last year’s Quicktax stunt, I would never have thought of using Ufile or StudioTax (free!). So, thanks again Intuit! Keep up the good work!
I have just spent better part of yesterday using QT Platinum to input to two web-based returns. Large parts of the data (estimated 50%) were lost today when I revisited the site. Screens take exceptionally long to load which may be part of the problem. Very cumbersome to skip around through the returns. The software and customer support seem to have gone down hill the last few years.
Really PO’d with Quicktax !
I just wasted a couple of hours filling out forms online only to be told I need a credit card to make changes to “additional income”…when it was Quicktax that automatically added the $19,000 to my additional income!!!
This sent me through the roof. This is outrageous and I can only hope a class-action takes down this extremely arrogant company.
I used to really like the product, too…
To “Disappointed with QT” (…aren’t we all?):
My constant complaint against QT is that their advertising is so misleading. Apparently you bought a more expensive version for your rental income because QT makes it appear that the Basic will only do T4s and little else.
In fact, all the versions of QT from the Basic to the Platinum have all the necessary forms for the T1 return, including business income. The more expensive versions include “planners”, “optimizers” and the like, which are just frills.
This year I’m running StudioTax alongside “Basic” QT, just for comparison, and they both do rentals, professional income, partnership income – everything I might need. Basic QT has no extras and won’t, for instance, bring forward figures from 2007 or work out optimal income splitting – but these are easy enough to do all by myself. QT would do them for me if I paid more for it.
That said – I filed with StudioTax last year, and will be doing so again.
I’ve been a long time QT user but concur with all the frustrations expressed on this blog. Am interested in trying Studiotax as it seems to be well regarded on this site … but is it only online, or can you buy a software version? I’m a bit anxious about loading our financials online for identity/security reasons. Any information appreciated.
Leigh: You download the software from the Studiotax site, and all the info. you input stays in your computer – it’s not stored somewhere online. Go to http://www.studiotax.com and check out their FAQs. One of them (#2, I think) addresses this point.
…fired up the online version, put in both mine and my wife’s returns (2 hours) – paid for the online version update for business ($84 for 2 of us) – and now it won’t even load up the saved return. 1.5 H of useless tech support from India.
Thanks for nothing Intuit.
Furio: Why did you have to pay extra for business? Did you need just the T2125 for business (part of the T1 return), or did you have to get the T2 return for incorporated business? Sounds as if the online versions of QT are worse than the the ones on CD – despite the deceitful advertising, you do get all the necessary forms for the T1, including business, with even the Basic CD for $19.99.
Furio: Why did you have to pay extra for business? Did you need just the T2125 for business (part of the T1 return), or did you have to get the T2 return for incorporated business? Sounds as if the online versions of QT are worse than the the ones on CD – despite the deceitful advertising, you do get all the necessary forms for the T1, including business, with even the Basic CD for $19.99.
Since the CRA requires all certified tax software to prepare tax returns under 25K net income for free, the rest of us have to pay for this feature.
Studiotax uses a different business model. They rely on contributions to sustain their enterprise. I’ve donated some small amount as appropriate to the number of returns I do (6-7 per year). This business model hopes that after seeing how much business they take from the big players (Intuit, etc), those big players will buy them out and remove the competition.
This was the case a few years ago when CanTax was also free and unlimited and then a fixed number in subsequent years… until Intuit finally got the “message” and bought them out.
I’m a believer in free enterprise… but really, do we need 10-20 different software versions to do our income tax? Why doesn’t the CRA just let us use a web version of their income tax software and put them out of business.
But I think the answer to that question is buried in the political contributions list of some of the federal political parties. And, as they say… “if pigs could fly…”