One of ItsDeductible most valuable feature is the ability to determine the fair-market-value for items that are donated to charity. Most people either forget or underestimate these donations. In fact, Intuit’s research shows that millions of Americans are overpaying taxes by hundreds of dollars because they do not know what their donated items are worth. The IRS says fair-market-value is what “a willing buyer will pay a willing seller.” ItsDeductible goes right to the one place today that actually knows what a willing buyer will pay for an item – eBay. ItsDeductible collects information from eBay to determine the most accurate fair-market-value for thousands of commonly donated items. The fair-market-value information in the program is updated on a regular basis through the Internet. ItsDeductible will help you legally maximize your charitable deductions

Program set up and use is easy. After installation, you are asked to update the software. My only gripe was that I needed to restart the computer several times to complete the software installation. Once installed the deductions and estimated tax savings are shown on the right side of the screen. This area also contains a Quick Help section that provides answers to most commonly asked questions about taxes and about how to use the program.

This program uses a clear interview type of format to help you enter expenses. The ideal way to use the program would be to enter expenses as the year progresses. However, you can also use it to determine all the deductions that you had for the last year when you do your taxes. The program is only good for one year. So if you want to use it for 2003 taxes and to also track your 2004 expenses, you will have to purchase two copies of the program. Although that sounds expensive, ItsDeductible is so sure that this program will help you save money that it guarantees you'll save $300 or more on your taxes or Intuit will give you your money back.

Although some of the fair-market-values sounded high to me, I would not hesitate to use them, since they were determined by the IRS rules. Intuit also guarantees the accuracy of the valuation data. In the event that the IRS questions any of the ItsDeductible valuations, Intuit will provide the IRS with direct documentation supporting the fair-market-values assigned by ItsDeductible. If the taxpayer pays an IRS or state penalty or interest because the IRS determines the ItsDeductible fair-market-values were improperly calculated, Intuit will even reimburse the taxpayer the penalty and interest.

ItsDeductible also lets you track medical expenses. If you purchase the deluxe version you can do this by family member. Of course, the amount of medical expenses that are deductible is determined by your Adjusted Gross Income, which must be entered before the amount of deduction can be calculated. However, the program is a good place to enter medical deductions that can be tracked through the year.

Donation receipts and reports can be printed out. The deductions can be imported directly into Intuit’s TurboTax program. If your donations exceed $500, the program will also automatically prepare the necessary IRS tax form 8283.

Two versions of ItsDeductible are available: basic and deluxe. The deluxe version adds the ability to track donations and expenses for each member of the family. It also has real-time lookup of fair-market-values for thousands of pieces of electronics and computes. The deluxe version has Kelly blue Book car valuations, the ability to track teacher expenses and Stewardship tracking of donations, as well.

Manufacturer:  Intuit

Price:  $19.95 Standard, $29.95 Deluxe