TurboTax and I are in a steady relationship. The tax-filing platform helps me file taxes fast, and I pay the platform a premium. So far, it's been worth the $100-plus price tag. But this year, I had a change of heart. I got spooked. What if I was overpaying? Ack! I had to know.
To check, I did my taxes twice: once on TurboTax, once on TaxSlayer. To my astonishment, TaxSlayer wasn't a smoking wreckage of clunky, dated software. It worked just fine. I could see why some filers would prefer TaxSlayer over TurboTax.
For one thing, TaxSlayer charged me 50% less. For another, the platform offered enough tax guidance to get a rookie like me through a half-dozen forms. It just worked.
Even so, I preferred TurboTax. It was easier and faster, and more importantly, I learned more about my taxes. Read on if you'd like a slightly more in-depth explanation of where I stand on the TurboTax vs. TaxSlayer scale.
TurboTax: Faster and easier
Horrible "Race Mode" aside, it's faster, easier, and more pleasant to file taxes on TurboTax.
The guidance is better. There are tooltips for everything, and the explanations are brief and pointed. Don't know what a standard deduction is? There's a tooltip for that.
Uploads are easier. You can import documents directly from your banks and brokerages. And when that fails, as it did for my bank's 1099 form, you can upload PDFs directly. Either way, TurboTax will autofill form fields. This year, it made no mistakes (it did last year, once).
It's fast. I spent 50 minutes or so processing my taxes through the tax-filing platform, which was faster than TaxSlayer. A lot faster. In fact, I frequently referred to my TurboTax account to speed up form filling.
That said, I paid for the privilege of organized forms. If TurboTax was a fancy and expensive Whole Foods, TaxSlayer was Costco -- bare bones, but downright cheap.
TaxSlayer: Cheaper and good enough
Assuming both platforms offer the same tax return, filing taxes on TaxSlayer is cheaper.
Here's what each platform charged me to file combined federal and state taxes:
TaxSlayer charged me less. That said, it took me about twice as long to file through TaxSlayer. A good chunk of that was getting last-minute "error" messages. I had to keep diving into my taxes to find out what was wrong. I also had to fill in some forms manually, which took longer.
Fortunately, TaxSlayer let me import my previous tax year documents quickly and easily. I downloaded the docs from TurboTax and uploaded them to TaxSlayer as PDFs.
Though processing my forms on TaxSlayer took longer, it was doable. It was plenty good enough for my tax-filing needs.
I'll probably use TurboTax in the future
I'll probably keep using TurboTax for two reasons: educational content and ease of use.
Thing is, TurboTax offers top-tier educational content. It's easy to figure out why I'm filling out Form XYZ, what Field ABC is for, and whether I should bother checking out Deduction 123. I just click the question mark next to the form/field/section. It's easy. Plus, the answers are thorough. TaxSlayer offers some explanations, but I found them confusing.
I'm also willing to pay more to file taxes fast. Speaking as someone who has done their taxes twice in 2024, I can confirm that taxes do, indeed, suck your soul. The less soul-sucking, the better. Take my money, TurboTax. (Not all of it, though -- I've got bills to pay.)
If TurboTax raises prices or TaxSlayer adds better guidance to its software, I'll consider switching from TurboTax to TaxSlayer in 2025. Until then, TurboTax is the better tax-filing software for my needs.
Are both too expensive? Check out the best free tax-filing software. Just be sure to file taxes or request an extension by April 15th, the tax-filing deadline.
