# Anyone successfully used TaxAct?



## Alltimegreat1

I'm using the Pro version of TaxAct to do my FTC. It's been an incredibly frustrating experience. It's clearly not capable of dealing with expats. For every question they ask, it's unclear whether they mean as relates to US or in general. I'm sure it makes a difference though. I was surprised to be "finished" with my tax return after just 30 minutes. The result was absolute garbage.

Has anyone had a good experience using TaxAct?


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## Bevdeforges

I downloaded and used the free version of TaxAct a couple of years ago and found it pretty good. I doubt you'll be able to find any program that is really built with expats in mind, as we're kind of an afterthought these days.

With TaxAct the trick seems to be to be sure to scroll all the way down any drop down menus. The couple of things I recall are things like the following:

You should NOT swami up a dummy W-2 for salary. If you scroll down the menu (not obvious from the drop down itself) about the last item is something about a Foreign Employer, which is how you enter your foreign salary amount.
However, for interest income, you can just put together a "fake" 1099 to get all the interest income onto the proper lines.
For retirement income and pensions, you have to scroll down (again) all the way to find a choice for foreign pensions, where there is the option to indicate how much of your foreign pension is taxable (which for many foreign pensions should be 0 if there's a tax treaty). 
But in general, tax programs don't have many features for us expats, because there really isn't much guidance in the IRS literature (or on the website) on many of the common forms of income we have to reckon with. 
Cheers,
Bev


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## Alltimegreat1

Thanks, Bev. After taking your advice I am slowly discovering how to use TaxAct. Not the most intuitive or user-friendly software, but really not too bad when one learns where to find things.


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## the_mighty_tim

I managed to use TaxACT successfully as well. In fact, it helped me understand the tax forms better, because after I had my forms professionally filled out, I downloaded the TaxACT software for that year and had a go at matching up the correct values in the correct places and after some playing around, I got my tax forms to look like the professional ones.

So, last year I filled out my tax return myself and had no difficulties (well, typos aside!)


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## Bevdeforges

That's actually a very good way to learn how to do your tax forms.

I kind of went the other way - in that I'm an accountant by trade, and so I've done my own tax forms most of my life. (I also have a very simple financial life, which helps. <g>) When folks started commenting about TaxAct, I did the reverse - played with Tax Act until I got it to produce the forms the way I normally do them and that's how I discovered some of the tricks about entering foreign source income so that it turns up on the correct line.
Cheers,
Bev


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## Clarebarr

I have used Tax Act for the last couple of years. This year I had to pay but figured $20 is way cheaper than an accountant, so didn't mind. I had a problem this year figuring out how to get rid of self employment tax, and used their support centre which helped me promptly and successfully.


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## Alltimegreat1

I retract the negative things I wrote about TaxAct. I still think it could be a bit more user friendly, but in the end it did a good job dealing with my tax situation.


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## byline

For the Health Insurance Summary (I'm currently in TaxAct's questionnaire phase), I assume that we click "No" to having the qualified health insurance and purchased health insurance options? I am covered in Canada by my provincial health insurance system.


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## byline

OK, I got past the Health Insurance Summary and was eventually able to claim the exemption. However, now I seem to be stuck on the Foreign Tax Credit. It's giving me three options to select, none of which seem to apply to me:

Check if this is the first year the AMT foreign tax credit is being claimed. (Nope)
Check if the simplified election was made on a previous return. (I don't think so; the election was made, but as far as I can tell Form 1116 was fully filled out for both regular and passive income. There was nothing "simplified" about it.)
Check to remove either of the above. (Doesn't seem to get me anywhere except owing U.S. tax.)


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## Bevdeforges

If neither box is applicable, check nothing and click on whatever button you need to to "continue."
Cheers,
Bev


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## byline

Bevdeforges said:


> If neither box is applicable, check nothing and click on whatever button you need to to "continue."
> Cheers,
> Bev


The problem with that is that it shows I end up owing tax. I shouldn't. Somehow I should be able to click on a box that selects the foreign tax credit, yes?


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## byline

OK, so I went back and did manage to get both my general and passive category income entered. I checked off that taxes were paid in Canada. None of the other entries seemed to apply to me, so I didn't check off any of those. And it is still showing that I get $0 in foreign tax credit, and am owing U.S. tax.

On my tax return from last year (prepared for me by H&R Block) there's a line 3a on Form 1116 for certain itemized deductions or standard deduction. That line was selected an an amount entered. But I'm not seeing that option anywhere in the TaxAct questionnaire.


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## byline

I called the fellow who prepared my taxes last year. He said I need to enter the balance due on my 2015 Canadian tax return in the appropriate TaxAct data entry fields. I did that, and for some bizarre reason it's still showing that I owe U.S. taxes. So I have sent a question to TaxAct Support, and am hoping they can walk me through this to find whatever it is I am overlooking or not filling out correctly. Frustrating, as I am so close to having this done.


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## Clarebarr

byline said:


> I called the fellow who prepared my taxes last year. He said I need to enter the balance due on my 2015 Canadian tax return in the appropriate TaxAct data entry fields. I did that, and for some bizarre reason it's still showing that I owe U.S. taxes. So I have sent a question to TaxAct Support, and am hoping they can walk me through this to find whatever it is I am overlooking or not filling out correctly. Frustrating, as I am so close to having this done.


I had a similar problem. Could not get self employment tax off my return, although I was exempt due to paying into UK system, it kept saying I owed the tax. Tax Act support gave me concise instructions to follow and problem was easily resolved. I'd spent hours trying to figure it out myself before asking for support. Next time, I'll contact them straight away.






well


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## byline

Excellent! I've spent hours, myself ... to no avail. I sent a message to support, so I'm sure they will be able to give me the same instructions as you. I will post here when the situation is resolved. Thanks, Clarebarr!


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## maz57

I used TaxAct once, last year, to remotely help an elderly US resident relative do their taxes. It worked fine but it wasn't an expat return so there were no expat tax issues involved. I tried to do the same this year but got interrupted and wound up having to log off mid-process. The free version of TaxAct seems to be gone unless you are only doing a bone simple 1040A which usually isn't the case for an expat.

When I logged back on the next day, I discovered TaxAct had dumped all of my work of the previous day. While trying to recoup my data they continually bombarded me with annoying additional fees. I gave up in disgust. I'll never use TaxAct again and a quick search of the 'net shows I'm not the only one complaining about problems with TaxAct.

With all the concern about internet security and identity theft I'm beginning to wonder if ANY online tax service is a good idea. How secure are their so-called "secure" servers? One can buy tax software and install it on their home computer so at least the data resides at home instead of a server somewhere. God only knows what happened to all that lost data that I entered for my relative's taxes.


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## byline

What I have noticed about TaxAct is that they require a security code with each new login. That's a higher level of security than many other sites I use.


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## byline

Well, I did not get the answer I was hoping for from TaxAct Support. Basically they're saying that I have no income tax from my part-time job because my income is so small. And then the foreign tax credit does not apply to my (even smaller) business income. Huh? It has in previous years. I sent a reply, so we'll see what comes of that. If I can't get this worked out with TaxAct, then I may have to go back to the tax preparer I was using. I'm not looking forward to forking out close to $400, when I make, in total, less than $10,000 CAD per year. *sigh*


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## byline

And ... because time is drawing short, now I am trying to figure out my tax return on my own, based on last year's return prepared for me by H&R Block. And it's driving me insane. I consider myself to have reasonably good reading comprehension skills, but the language on the instruction form is so cryptic that it's a huge struggle for me to calculate the foreign tax credit. I'm really in a foul mood now, because I thought I was so close to having this over and done with for this year.


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## byline

OK, now that I have calmed down a bit (and my sharp-eyed hubby took a look at Form 1040), I see the standard deduction for someone married, filing separately: $6,300. Sadly, my tax preparer from last year did not point this out to me when I called him yesterday. He insisted I needed to do the calculation of income vs. Canadian taxes paid (that was driving my non-math brain nuts). Because he said that, I didn't even look to see the $6,200 standard deduction listed off the left on last year's tax return. Now I see it, and I think that will simplify things greatly. So things are looking up!


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