TurboTax Planning Tools

While TurboTax has its annual tax filing software, it also has a set of freely available tools that help enable tax planning, including a W-4 withholding calculator that rivals the IRS' own tax withholding estimator. These tools are among the most helpful around for planning and projecting your taxes as you go through the year.

When you also use TurboTax for filing, some of these tools work better, because TurboTax can move your existing information into the tool from your history. Others are disconnected, but may be most intuitive if you've used TurboTax before.

Filing your taxes itself is a big form of life admin. But if you've ever worked with an accountant or been interested in lowering your tax burden yourself, you know that it really adds to your life admin burden. There are deadlines that you can't miss and complicated financial moves that take some decision-making time and calculation before they're made. Tax planning tools that are up-to-date with the latest limits and thresholds are extremely helpful here. And TurboTax has a history of building and maintaining such tools.

Today, there are several key players in tax filing software, but no major providers of tax planning. For that, you usually need to enlist the help of a tax advisor and/or accountant. If you can't afford services and want to plan tax moves on your own, your best bet is to use well-made and well-maintained calculators. Of the personal tax-filing software providers, TaxAct and TurboTax each have built out tax planning tool lists, all of which are free. H&R Block and TaxSlayer haven't created as many digital tools.

What makes TurboTax stand out is that year-to-year, they've done a faster and more thorough job of updating their calculators, relative to TaxAct, which also has an impressive library.

TurboTax's planning tools are effective for multiple kinds of planning, but here's where it really shines:

1. Double-checking the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator on how much you need to withhold via your workplace W-4.
2. Understanding which deducations and credits you may be eligible for and what you might need to do to capture them.
3. Making calculations when you're self-employed and withholding taxes yourself.