While QuickTax and UFile are both great tax preparation programs, there are other alternatives that will do the job and are completely free. Today we’ll look at StudioTax, which I was impressed with when I used StudioTax 2008 last year.
StudioTax includes a Quick Start Wizard that takes you through most of your taxes. StudioTax is a full featured program, including support for those that are self employed and those with investments or rental income. Unlike the paid programs, that only allow filing 8 returns, Studiotax will let you file 20, which is the maximum that the CRA will allow to be eligible for NetFile.
StudioTax does have built in update checking, though it seems to only be a manual link, not run when the program starts. So if you installed StudioTax earlier in the year, be sure to update to the latest version to get any fixes or improvements to the software. Unfortunately StudioTax also does not support importing previous returns from other programs, only from StudioTax.
The other small issue I have is with the visual presentation. While it does what it needs to do, a more polished look would give it a feeling of being more user friendly and would help more Canadians to view it on the same level as QuickTax and UFile.
Started in 2004, StudioTax was developed by a group of software developers from Ottawa and has been gaining in popularity every year since. While StudioTax is free, they do accept donations. If you like the program, consider sending them a few dollars to show your appreciation for all the effort they have put into it!
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I don’t think I’ve heard of StudioTax before; but, now that you mention its free, maybe I’ll give it a try!
Can you still use the program to get an ‘estimate’ as to how your taxes are supposed to turn out or is its sole intention to file online for you?
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Filed using StudioTax last year, worked like a charm. Even my accountant was impressed.
I have been using StudioTax for years and it does give you the option of “What If” scenerios. It does everything the other tax preparation softwares do and it is free.
This is my 3rd year using Studio Tax. I do my wife’s and my taxes with it including our small unincorporated business and it works like a charm. Highly recommended.
I used StudioTax last year for myself, husband, parents, and grandparent; I also did a sanity check with quicktax. The two gave almost identical results for most of us, and Quicktax gave a slightly higher return for my husband for some reason, never could figure out why.
My question is, I couldn’t find anywhere to claim the HRTC on StudioTax 2009, am I missing something?
To claim the HRTC credit in StudioTax:
1. Answer yes to the HRTC question during the wizard
Or if you missed it:
2. Add Schedule 12 to your tax return by pressing the Forms button.
I’ve used StudioTax the last three years and I’m going to use it again this year. Apart from the visual look which could be a bit more polished the only other issue I have with it is that it doesn’t do Quebec taxes – so I still have to do those by hand.
I still think the CRA should have online forms for completing your taxes.
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I used StudioTax for our 2008 returns and was thoroughly impressed with its ease of use and, of course, with its price.
I will gratefully contribute to this small but very professional team rather than further bloat the coffers of Intuit et al.
Highly recommended.
I’m big fan .. been using it for 4 years.