TurboTax Review

Overall Ranking

4.65/5

Overview

Credibility

5/5

Customer Support

5/5

Cost

4/5

Ease of Use

4.5/5

After extensive research, TurboTax wins out as our top choice for the best tax software in Canada. The flexibility, ease-of-use, special features, and affordable pricing of TurboTax makes it ideal for most tax situations ranging from simple to complex.

Jordann Brown

Best For

• Expert help
• Families, students and individual returns
• Self-employed and investment/rental income

What is TurboTax?

TurboTax is a Canadian income tax software that allows you to prepare your taxes online and submit your income tax return directly to the CRA. Whether you have a simple return, own property or a small business, or want to prepare your return on your mobile device, TurboTax can meet your needs.

TurboTax’s claim to fame is that they are Canada’s #1 tax software and that they’ve helped Canadians file 45 million income tax returns over the past 20 years. Their claims are true: if you want help preparing your taxes without paying a premium, TurboTax is the software for you.

Canadians turn to TurboTax because it has a reputation for rock-solid reliability, tiered service that ensures you only pay for the functionality you need, excellent customer service, and full integration into the Canada Revenue Agency’s NETFILE system.

Why Use TurboTax?

If you are one of the 50% of Canadians who have reported feeling uneasy about filing your taxes, TurboTax is an excellent choice. TurboTax is an ideal middle ground between completely DIYing your taxes with a pen and paper and paying an accountant or brick-and-mortar business hundreds of dollars to prepare a return. With TurboTax, you’ll pay somewhere between $0 and $49.99, depending on the complexity of your return.

The software is safe and secure, and they offer an accuracy guarantee, so if there is an error in their calculation of your taxes, or if another tax prep method yields a greater return, they’ll make it right for you. On top of this security, TurboTax makes the process of actually filing your return easy, because they are NETFILE certified, meaning you can process your return through the TurboTax website directly, without the hassle of downloading a PDF and uploading it to the CRA website.

TurboTax Pricing

There are four tiers of pricing for TurboTax Do-It-Yourself products. Which tier is right for you depends on how complex your tax situation is, and how much help you want along the way. If you plan to prepare your taxes yourself without any help from a pro, TurboTax pricing is competitive with similar online tax preparation software. Plus, Young and Thrifty readers can use our TurboTax link and save up to 15% off!

If you need some extra assistance preparing your tax return, TurboTax also offers expert help in the form of their Assist & Review service, which gives you on-demand advice from a tax expert who will also review your return before you file. The cost for this service ranges, depending on the complexity of your tax situation. If you’ve had a complicated year with multiple income sources and government benefit payments, you can even have a TurboTax expert prepare your taxes by choosing the Full Service option.

If you don’t need this type of extra help, below includes four tiers of pricing for TurboTax Do-It-Yourself products that are offered:

Key Features

• Flexible Pricing Options: Whether you are a student, an entrepreneur, or something in between, TurboTax has a pricing tier to suit your needs. Prices for Do-It-Yourself start as low as free and range up to $49.99 for self-employed individuals.

• NETFILE Integration: TurboTax is “in-synch” with the CRA’s NETFILE, making tax filing a cinch. TurboTax can also import info from the CRA to autofill your return, and you can securely file directly to the CRA with just a few clicks of your mouse. By using NETFILE with TurboTax, you’ll get an Express Notice of Assessment instantly, and you can expect your tax refund in as few as eight days.

• Auto-fill my return: TurboTax helps you get a jumpstart on your taxes by gathering the information available from your CRA My Account and downloading it into your return. Auto-fill my return imports your T Slips for employment income, benefit slips including those for CERB or other recovery benefits, and RRSP contribution limits for quick and easy filing.

• RRSP Optimizer: Not sure if you should contribute more to your RRSP? The RRSP Optimizer shows you how different contribution amounts will affect your refund or amount owing.

• Instant Refund Ticker: Don’t wait until you’re nearly finished to see the final tally – the tracker keeps you updated along the way. As you enter your information, you can watch in real time how it affects your refund or tax owed.

• TurboTax Assist & Review: Upgrade to Assist & Review to have a real tax expert available while you fill out your return, and do a final line-by-line review before you file. Expert reviews are an excellent tool if your tax situation has recently changed.

• TurboTax Full Service: If you’d prefer, you can upgrade to TurboTax Full Service, which includes audit defence at no extra charge, and have a tax expert prepare your return, optimize it for credits and deductions, and file it on your behalf.

• Pension Splitting Optimizer: If you have CPP or other pensions, you can split up to 50% of that with your spouse. TurboTax automatically advises you on the best distribution of your income to pay the least amount in taxes.

• Return Review: Before you file TurboTax does one final review of your return to ensure you get the largest possible refund.

• Audit Defense: This add-on gives you professional representation if you are audited by the CRA. This tax pro will deal with the CRA on your behalf to minimize your stress.

• Walks you through life changes: Whether you bought a house, got married or divorced, or started up a side gig, TurboTax has you covered. It guides you through these changes step by step.

• Mobile App: File your taxes with the free TurboTax mobile app for iOS and Android.

• Accuracy guaranteed: If you receive a larger or smaller tax refund from another tax preparation software, your copy of TurboTax is free. On top of that, TurboTax guarantees its calculations are 100% accurate and will reimburse you any fees or penalties from the CRA if a mistake is found.

• COVID-19 Tax Info Centre: Have questions about your government COVID-19 benefits or looking for a step-by-step guide on claiming your home office expenses? TurboTax has launched a COVID-19 info centre with everything you need to know about claiming benefits and deductions at tax time.

TurboTax Support Options

Got questions? TurboTax has answers. Here are some ways that you can access support during the tax-filing process.

TurboTax Free Support

When you use TurboTax and choose either the Standard, Premier, or Self-Employed editions of the software, you’ll have access to the following free support:

• TurboTax Community: An online community with answers from both tax experts and customers that is also available to TurboTax online free users. Have a highly specific question about a specific deduction or situation? Odds are someone else has asked about it in the Community and got an answer.

TurboTax Support for Deluxe, Premier, and Self-Employed Products

• Phone support: TurboTax offers phone and one-way video product support with all paid products. Call TurboTax between the hours of 9 am and 6 pm EST from Monday to Friday, with extended hours until midnight from February 24 until April 30. Support is available in both English and French.

TurboTax Assist & Review

TurboTax Assist & Review is an excellent way to prepare your tax return yourself, but have a tax expert “on-call” if you have questions. At a cost of $39.99-$89.99 ($44.99-$99.99 as of April 17th), you’ll gain access to unlimited advice from a tax expert who will review your return for accuracy before you file. That means if you hit a roadblock during the process, you can ask a tax expert for advice in real time while you’re completing your return. The cost of this service for self-employed individuals is $109.99 ($129.99 as of April 17th).

Once your income tax return is completed, schedule a time for your tax expert to virtually review your return line-by-line to ensure you haven’t missed or omitted anything. This service is available for both personal income tax returns and those with small business or rental income.

TurboTax Full Service

Prefer a tax pro to do the work but don’t want to visit one in person? TurboTax Full Service has you covered. For $69.99-$149.99 ($89.99-$179.99 as of April 17th), a tax expert with an average of 10 years of experience will collect all your documentation online and prepare your income tax return for you virtually. The tax expert will optimize your return, review it with you via phone or video chat, and then file it on your behalf. TurboTax Full Service is available for self-employed individuals as well, but the cost is $249.99 ($279.99 as of April 17th).

TurboTax Pros and Cons

How Does TurboTax Compare?

TurboTax isn’t the only tax preparation software on the market. Here’s how TurboTax stacks up to some top competitors.

TurboTax User Experience

TurboTax is optimized to make filing your taxes a breeze, but if you’ve never used the software before, the sign-up process involves creating a user ID and setting up your password. You’ll need this information to sign in later, so keep it in a safe place. The next time you sign in, the two-step authentication process will email or text you a single-use code that you’ll need, so be sure to enter your phone number and email address correctly.

Once you’ve signed in, TurboTax will ask you about your tax situation, which will help suggest which of their four products is the best choice for you.

After you complete the questionnaire and select the product tier that works for your situation, TurboTax will begin building your tax profile. To do this, the software needs basic information from you including your social insurance number, date of birth, dependents and spouse information, and address.

The user interface itself is easy to understand and navigate. If you are preparing multiple returns, you can cycle through them using the menu on the left side of the screen. Moving forward and backward between screens is possible by using the bottoms on the bottom, and you can save your return and exit at any time using the sign-out option on the bottom left-hand side. If there is a section you aren’t sure about, you can use the bookmark function to come back later.

TurboTax is also available on mobile, with a sleek app that makes filing a simple tax return a breeze. You can also swap between the browser and mobile version of the software, completing the different sections as you see fit.

TurboTax FAQs

Is TurboTax Free in Canada?

There is a free version of TurboTax that has all of the forms and schedules needed to prepare and file your income tax return. Only the web browser version of TurboTax is free and still gives you access to some features like their 100% accuracy guarantee and the AnswerXChange. Still, you won’t be able to import your previous year’s tax information or store your return with TurboTax for future years.

Is TurboTax safe?

TurboTax is CRA NETFILE certified software that uses encryption and two-factor authentication to keep your information safe and secure. TurboTax has operated in Canada for 20 years and has assisted in submitting 45 million tax returns for Canadians. While no form of electronic information transmission is 100% foolproof, TurboTax is pretty close.

Can I use TurboTax if I'm Self-Employed?

Yes! TurboTax has a specific product tier for self-employed individuals. Whether you are a freelancer with a strong side hustle game or have a full-blown business that is your sole source of income, TurboTax Self-Employed is flexible enough to ensure you get every last deduction you deserve. Easily report your earnings, expenses, and business use of home figures to the CRA using TurboTax Self-Employed. You’ll never miss an eligible expense due to their easy-to-understand interview system designed to discover every possible deduction. TurboTax Self-Employed has all of the same features as the personal version of this software, and you can still sign up for the Assist & Review and Full-Service add-ons (although they cost more than the individual versions). As a bonus, when you use TurboTax Self-Employed, you automatically qualify for one year of QuickBooks Self-Employed. This leading accounting software will help you save time and manage your self-employed business better in 2022.

How Many Returns Can I Submit Using TurboTax?

TurboTax has a limit of 20 returns per account.

Final Call: Is TurboTax Worth It?

While many Canadians typically have straightforward tax returns, 2020 might have made your tax situation a little more complicated. Whether you qualified for one of the many government benefit programs launched to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19, or simply want to claim the home office deduction this year, for most Canadians, tax season in 2020 will be a little more complicated than usual. TurboTax has got you covered, offering you a viable way to DIY your taxes in 2020 – even if they are more complicated. If you aren’t comfortable DIYing, but also want to stay away from brick-and-mortar tax preparers, TurboTax gives you the option of having your return reviewed by a tax pro for an extra fee, so you can be sure that what you’re submitting is error-free. All of these services are offered at an affordable price with an easy-to-navigate user interface, and honestly, we can’t think of a reason why you shouldn’t use TurboTax this tax season.

Ready to sign up? Don’t forget to use our link and save up to 15% off TurboTax!