TurboTax vs WISO Steuer

TurboTax is tax preparation software available online, on mobile, and as desktop software. It supports returns involving self-employment, investment income, and rental income, with state filing available as a paid add-on. Users can import, upload, or photograph documents, including information from participating employers and financial institutions; the maker says auto-imports are available from more than one million such organizations. Customers can receive unlimited expert advice or have an expert prepare a return from start to finish. Free filing is limited to simple Form 1040 returns, and the listed estimate is that about 37% of taxpayers qualify. The free tier excludes itemized deductions, business income, stock sales, rental income, and other schedules. Deluxe searches more than 350 deductions and credits, while Premium lists more than 450. Do It Yourself Deluxe is listed at $79, paid once for federal filing, with state additional. TurboTax says its accuracy guarantee covers IRS or state penalties and interest caused by a calculation error, subject to terms.

WISO Steuer guides people through preparing and filing German income tax returns. Users can photograph wage statements and receipts for automatic recognition, and the software updates an expected refund estimate as information is entered. With consent, it can retrieve tax data such as wage-tax information from the tax administration. SteuerGPT answers tax questions in natural language, while Tax Banking can retrieve and categorize transactions when connected to a finanzblick account. Completed returns are sent electronically to the tax office using the official ELSTER interface. One license allows up to five returns, and eligibility is limited to people with unlimited tax liability in Germany. The software is available on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web, and Windows. A free test version allows all functions to be tried, with payment requested when submitting a return. The Vorteils-Abo costs €35.99 a year and renews automatically each November; Einzelkauf costs €45.99 a month, billed as a one-time purchase for a tax year. Buhl says data is stored on servers in Germany and protected with HTTPS and AES-256 encryption in transit and storage.