First Time Filer - I reviewed TurboTax Business Desktop vs Online and need help. TIA!

[astracastra]

First off, thank you for taking some of your valuable time to read and reply!

I am a first time filer and I have already filed for my 1120S extension. Now, I am trying to understand the difference between Turbotax Business Desktop ($190) and Turbotax Small Business Online (~$490)!  Based on what I read, there is no difference in functionality - you get all the tax forms in both and you also get tax expert guidance in both - so why $300 difference (that's a lot in absolute terms and bonkers in % terms)?  In addition to price advantage, Desktop version gives direct access to the forms, lets you make manual edits, allows up to 5 returns for free (vs just 1 for Online) and finally, since it is sold at Big Box retailers, you may even get more discounts on the price!

This is America and there are no free lunches - a product with more features sell for more, which is mostly true even for products across the brands and almost always true within the same brand!  So this is a head-scratcher for sure.

Minor downsides that I can see with Desktop version are as follows

- You need to have a "private" computer (which is not a big deal these days.  Honestly, it is preferred for online version too)

- You have to download and install the software (not a major inconvenience these days)

- You have to keep installing new software for each tax year (this can be a little bit of a pain once you have > 10 years of returns).  I have a question on this too - can you not open 2023 tax file with 2024 or later software?

- You will not have access to your taxes without your private computer (not a big deal if you print your tax forms as pdf and put them on cloud drives like Google, OneDrive etc)

- You will not have the ability to delegate the whole tax filing to a tax expert with Desktop version (this could be a big deal for some but one could do that with their local tax expert)

All the downsides, except installing new software every year, are not really downsides to me.  So, I must be missing something!  What is that I am missing?  Thank you all in advance!

[LeticiaF1]

With the desktop version you prepare your own return, the online gives you two options with different prices:

• Assisted Business- where you get unlimited help from an expert as you do your return
• Full Service Business- where an expert does the return for you.  

Visit our Live Business site for more information.  
 

[astracastra]

Thanks a lot for your reply.  The Desktop version also says that I get access to tax experts - is it not the case?  Are you saying that Desktop version doesn't give any access to TurboTax tax experts?

[RobertB4444]

The access to tax experts with the desktop version is a little different.  If you have a question you can ask it.  But they don't do the return for you.

@astracastra