is it safe to put all your personal info into turbo tax? Is the info able to be seen on the internet?

Question

turbo tax wants me to put all our social security numbers, dates of birth, full names, etc into the worksheets, but I worry that hackers can find it on my computer since i'm hooked up to the internet

Answer 1

It is safe as any other financial transaction on the internet. TurboTax is asking for it because it is required for your tax forms and not for any other reason. I have used TurboTax on many occasions and one or two others without anything bad ever happening. In my opinion, you can feel at ease about typing in your personal info to the TurboTax website. Just make sure the webpage always starts with https instead of http which will indicate a secure connection and there should be a closed lock also to indicate the same.

Answer 2

I've used TurboTax for several years both for personal and small business returns without any privacy issues, and this includes all the fed information. The files stay on your computer and are not accessible to others via the internet.
But in general you should have Windows firewall software implemented (XP has this included, and it comes with Norton as well) on your computer, which largely eliminates the possibility of intrusion.

Answer 3

The personal information could be gotten by hackers in some strange way, but they probably ask this information to help with the ease of the tax steps involved. I'm not completely sure of this, however. I don't believe they use the program to publish the information to the web, or shouldn't without your approval.

Answer 4

Yes Ive had good results with TurboTax. Just go to the site yourself or on a direct link from IRS.gov for phishing safety. I believe it is free for $30year or less.