Best canadian tax software for self employed

I have investments and rental income. I continue to be happy with them but I typically do not need support. I pay for the software in December when it is discounted.

I do see that the Windows version is the same price at the cheapest level. I did love the Studiotax software though. Been using Turbo tax premier since and the navigation has improved immensely since then. Very much like the program and will continue to use for all four members of our family.

Well, now they are charging per return! Holy Cow! But what do I buy now? I was tired of TurboTax support as well. I was using them for years and finally switched to CloudTax in I love how easy it is. I liked Simple Tax too but I had to scroll and scroll with all my investment slips. CloudTax is simple and easy to follow. I totally recommend CloudTax as well. Main advantage is file storage stays in your hard drive and not in the cloud. Clouds can become heavy and will eventually rain down everywhere…lol.

Studio Tax wins hands down in this comparison. Do you really want all your financial stuff to reside in the cloud waiting for some hacker to access it? Studio Tax is the only one that keeps all your stuff safe on your computer and not in the cloud and with auto-fill you can literally complete and file a return in a few minutes.

In my case it took a bit longer since I had some foreign income to deal with. I highly recommend it. I believe you are mistaken or misinformed. I use the bit Windows version of StudioTax. In NO case is a file viewer required. On my inch laptop I set the display to dpi as I spend a lot of time working on spreadsheets and I get more real estate at that resolution. When I start StudioTax a dialogue box lets me know that StudioTax prefers 96 dpi and that some forms may not display correctly.

I have used StudioTax since to file multiple returns each year. I have never needed a file viewer of any kind. Nor have I had to spend a penny. I personally donate every year to support the developers. Ive used Studio Tas for years. Just like every year. Got to security question about my entry amount for Line of return. What the …… are they serious?

So happens a trustee did my return leaving me no working copy to check obscure details like Line I have yet to find free tax software that does that and that is important for me since I can check past returns without having to go online all the time.

I knew I should have filed before April before the increase…. I have been using UFile online for many years and this may be the last time. Had to lay twice and after 2 weeks of waiting for a resonate, they told me to keep my receipt and would credit me next year. I had an error code on my return and could not remit to the CRA. My forms has been fixed, after deleting all data and re entering it, now my spouses is getting the same error.

And I even auto filled from the CRA to ensure all data was correct. I am a very frustrated customer and thinking of not using them next year. No iPhone support after hours or you get a message that they are having technical difficulties and to call later. During the tax season? I am a CA and I use simpletax. I agree. I used turbotax for many years but last year I switched to simple tax and I prefer it. So now I have to print off some paperwork and mail it in and hope that works.

Forget it!! Too complicated and poor instructions. I wanted to back out and take all my personal stuff, ph. Iknow, they are a secure site, but I get very nervous as I still think the day will come when we will regret having all our personal info sitting in the digital world. But, in fairness I will try others and I will keep an open mind.

Hope I find an easy simple software that works for me. Studio Tax is just what you need. Donations are purely voluntary, but I do it as a show of appreciation and also hopefully helping keep the company afloat, See comment from Rob Parson for more info on this software. I know that TurboTax has a refund guarantee attached to their products, and they launched a mobile app just the other day — saw it on the Apple iTunes store.

Disclaimer, I am not connected with StudioTax in any way, other than as a satisfied user of many years standing. All versions are certified by CRA. The iOS version is available on the Apple store while the Android version can be downloaded from the Google Play store. All versions can be used to prepare up to 20 returns a CRA limitation per device. I have used StudioTax since to file multiple returns. The data files are stored on my laptop, with copies in my DropBox for backup purposes.

Hi, would Studio Tax work as a family return. Two adult children included. I use a laptop to visit seniors homes to do volunteer returns and use a desktop at my house. Your Name. Your Email.

We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products or services. Best Tax Return Software in Canada for Written by Jordann Brown.

Editors note: Advertisers are not responsible for the contents of this site including any editorials or reviews that may appear on this site. For complete and current information on any advertiser product, please visit their Web site. Tax season in Canada is around the corner! A personal finance expert reviews some of the best tax return software in Canada. In This Article:. Article comments. June 11, at am. Chris in Hamilton says:. April 29, at pm. The tax support agent I spoke with was extremely helpful, but was not in a position to provide the customer support that the chat agent had promised he could.

The fee tax advice agent still spent a couple of hours assisting me as best he could and was able to determine that there was indeed a bug and that the product I had purchases would not be usable for the type of return I needed to file. He typed up a comprehensive email outline the issue I had, the troubleshooting we did and told me that he would escalate the issue for me and to expect their customer service department to contact me the following day to make arrangements for me to obtain a free download link that I could use instead.

I was not contacted the following day so I reached out to them for further assistance. At that point I was told that I would need to pay for the download link which was double the cost of what I had paid for the online version and that it would take two weeks to process a refund for the online version with I bug that I had already purchased.

I was put on hold multiple times and each person that I escalated my concern to spoke to me in a more and more disrespectful tone of voice. I was told that there was absolutely no way to provide me with a download link without me purchasing it and that the prices were non-negotiable. When I insisted that I talk to someone else further up the ladder I was told that they are busy people and that I could wait, but that it may take an hour or longer for someone to take me off hold.

By that point I no longer even cared about getting the download link, but wanted to speak with someone about the negative customer experience I was encountering. I was put on hold for 45 minutes before the connection was simply disconnected.

I actually liked the product and would have probably used it in subsequent years even with having encountered a bug if Intuit had valued me as a customer. Following this experience, however, Intuit has lost my business forever and I will be sure to forewarn my family and friends so that none of them will have to encounter the poor customer service that I did! The online from uFile.

After I have followed all procedure that uFile provided, my child care fee from my dependant will not go to lien of one of our lower income parent. Does UFile have any type of customer service that replies within a couple of days? The lack of responsive customer service is very disturbing and concerning. When CanTax got taken over by Quicken, a lot of its features were taken out and put in a more expensive version, and TurboTax kept that concept alive.

One basic thing I miss is the ability to drill down on any number on any form anywhere, and it would take you back to how it got there. With Ufile, its a lot of manual tracing. Now at least you can do it with free software, and online through Revenue Canada. I found it ironic that I had to pay to save Revenue Canada time in processing my return.

Tom, could you expand your reviews to include comparisons of usability features such as drill-down, tax planning, etc.? I use both Turbo Tax and U File. Both Programs, have a good review functions, that takes U right to the source that needs change.. UFile has a hiccup when trying to efile, it keeps asking for soap to be installed in the file Library, if more than one person is included in the return. The only minor nuisance is that because it is a downloaded program not web-based is that I need to keep a Windows computer available I use Linux for everything else.

Generally, I have been happy with TurboTax for many years. We get dividends and capital gains in a joint account and UFile automatically splits them for us in any percentage you tell the program.

TurboTax you have to make this calculation manually which is very time consuming and tedious. For this reason alone we use UFile and are happy with the program. Have used Ufile Pro for the past three years, with no problems. This year some changes have made it less user friendly. It is now owned by Thompson Rueters. IjJust tried Ufile after reading the article and found it handles my wife and my joint requirements quite adequately.

The fact that Ufile allows one to initially go on and try it without actually purchasing it was the impetus I needed. Thanks for the recommendation and for saving me bucks! Its very easy to use for both personal and business taxes and carries forward info from previous years. Anyone has idea what is going on and can help? Cantax is not owned by Intuit. It is owned by Wolters Kluwer.

Also another excellent choice is Taxcycle if you want a professional tax program. DT Max expensive has a pro tax program and ufile is their consumer cheap package which I think is confusing and tedious. Happy customer here! They have an email for customer support and usually reply within 24 hrs which is pretty impressive. Bruce, when I wrote this article, they were not yet netfile certified for that year. I probably could have explained it better, but how do facts equal slander?

I love TaxChopper. I have rental properties, CCA, and small business. I use a few spreadsheets outside of it to track CCA etc. Overall very happy with it. TurboTax is a user-friendly Canadian tax software program that lets you prepare your File taxes online easily and quickly. Turbotax works only on windows 8 or 10 because Microsoft no longer supports windows 7.

Personally, I think tax software that needs to be downloaded to a computer is an advantage not a disadvantage. Because I do not trust storing my tax information on a third-party server.

Any company can be a victim of hacking and theft of personal information as you may have read in the news. I know my own computer can be hacked too but then I have nobody to blame but myself. My vote for best tax software is StudioTax. It has all the features of a paid version plus it does Quebec returns too. I have a brother-in-law that lives in Montreal.

The interface is a bit dated but I hate paying every year to buy software just to do my taxes. I previously used UFile for many years but I find the quality of the software has degraded. TurboTax is the premier name but it is way over-priced. Why are people getting lazy? I too was among the StudioTax on MacOS faithful, but for , the tax form changes made by CRA have resulted in broken calculations and coding errors in the forms.

Also, the mobile device version crashes repeatedly and customer support has gone AWOL. I used to donate every year. I believe in a merit based system. Truly Free you can make a donation if you like.

I love it and recommend it to everyone. Northern living benefits and capital gains are simple. FreshBooks is our favorite accounting software for freelancers, sole proprietors, solopreneurs, and other small-business owners who send frequent invoices. But if you have more than five clients a month or don't care for FreshBooks' invoices, try one of our other top picks:.

The right accounting software makes collecting payments, following up with clients, and paying the right amount of taxes easier than ever. Good luck! Are you planning on hiring employees in the near future?

Your financial needs are likely too complex for freelancing accounting software. Instead, read all about the best accounting software for small businesses. QuickBooks Self-Employed can work for freelancers and solopreneurs, but its main selling point is its built-in mileage-tracking feature.

Most importantly, its invoicing feature is subpar. Plus, it tracks miles and tax expenses but not sales tax. For instance, FreshBooks might work best for you if you depend on frequent invoicing. If your business sells products rather than services, you might prefer Xero , which includes inventory tracking at no additional cost.

Nearly all accounting software providers offer free trials—we highly recommend taking software for a test run to maximize your chances of finding the best accounting software for you. Its app is similarly easy to use and offers the same features as the cloud-based software. All three options have a low learning curve and solid instructional videos to help you get set up.

But different free accounting options have different benefits, so we recommend looking over our list of the 10 best free accounting software for small businesses to find the right one for you. At Business. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services. Sources 1. By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Disclaimer: The information featured in this article is based on our best estimates of pricing, package details, contract stipulations, and service available at the time of writing.

All information is subject to change. For the most accurate information, please ask your customer service representative. Clarify all fees and contract details before signing a contract or finalizing your purchase. Our mission is to help consumers make informed purchase decisions. While we strive to keep our reviews as unbiased as possible, we do receive affiliate compensation through some of our links.

This can affect which services appear on our site and where we rank them. Our affiliate compensation allows us to maintain an ad-free website and provide a free service to our readers. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy Page. We may earn money when you click on our links. Learn More.

We looked at the 20 most popular accounting software and assessed them by price, plan, accounting features, functionality, ease of use, and suitability for self-employed freelancers to bring you our top 9 accounting software picks. Best overall. Starting from. Automatic recurring invoices. Customer portal for easy collaboration. No bank reconciliation with cheapest plan. See Plans. Best for freelancers. Zoho Books. Automatic expense tracking and recurring invoices. Client portal for easy collaboration.

Limited third-party integrations. Most affordable. Free for life. Completely free accounting software. Invoicing app. No accounting app or mileage tracking. Best tax tracking. QuickBooks Self-Employed. Built-in mileage tracking. Thorough tax deduction assistance. Basic accounting features only. Best for ecommerce. Built-in inventory tracking. Automatic sales tax tracking and reporting. No expense tracking with cheapest plans. By Kylie McQuarrie. Business Accounting Staff Writer. Published on January 04, Share Article.

Updated: several months ago. View all updates. The best accounting software for the self-employed. Wave Accounting. Honorable mentions. Compare the best accounting software for freelancers.

Software brand.