TurboTax vs Wealthsimple Tax
Looking to file your simple tax return in Canada with DIY software?
Let’s compare two popular choices.
TurboTax
TurboTax is Do-it-Yourself (DIY) tax software from Intuit. You may be familiar with Intuit as the makers of QuickBooks, the popular small business accounting software application. Intuit Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of Intuit, Inc., which is an American company.
TurboTax software has been around for several years and is well-known to DIY taxpayers. The advantage of this longevity is that TurboTax has developed many features and can handle most types of tax returns, from simple to complicated. For Canadians, there are currently four different versions of TurboTax: Free, Standard, Premier and Self-Employed. If you have business or professional income, you will need to choose the Self-Employed version, which is also the most expensive. You can use TurboTax to connect to CRA’s Auto-Fill My Return service and download tax slips that have been issued to you for the tax year. If you use one of the paid versions of TurboTax, you will also be able to access product assistance.
You may find it difficult to determine exactly how much you will end up paying for TurboTax, as some online reviewers complain about persistent notices within the application, attempting to upsell you to additional features. It is possible to start preparing your return with one version of the software and then find out, later on, that you need a more expensive version to complete your return due to certain elements of your tax situation. As such, it is prudent to spend some time determining exactly which types of income and deductions are included with each version of TurboTax, before starting your return.
Wealthsimple Tax
Another DIY tax software choice is Wealthsimple Tax. Wealthsimple tax started out as SimpleTax, a relatively small Canadian company, based in Vancouver. Over the past decade, SimpleTax became popular with Canadian DIY taxpayers, by providing a “pay what you want” pricing model. In September of 2019, SimpleTax was acquired by Wealthsimple, another Canadian company, and re-branded as Wealthsimple Tax.
Although not as well-known as TurboTax, SimpleTax has a good reputation for being easy to use and applicable to a variety of tax return situations. You can file previous year tax returns, all the way back to the 2012 tax year, using previous versions of SimpleTax. Like TurboTax, you can use SimpleTax to connect to CRA Auto-Fill My Return and download tax slips before entering them into the software. SimpleTax also has the ability for you to set up two-factor authentication, for extra security regarding access to your account and data.
While SimpleTax appears to maintain the “pay what you want” pricing option, for now, some online reviewers are worried that this may change as a result of the recent acquisition by Wealthsimple. From 2024, Wealthsimple charges for two additional feature tiers of the software; Plus and Pro. Paying for the software grants the user 1-day email support (vs. 3 days for the free version) and the option to talk to a tax preparer (not necessarily a licensed chartered accountant or CPA, but rather somebody with experience preparing returns at H&R Block or TurboTax, for example, according to the Wealthsimple website FAQ). Wealthsimple is an online investment management service that does charge for their other products. Some online reviewers are also disenchanted that SimpleTax appears to be back-tracking on their long-standing promise that they would “never, ever sell” your data, as the company’s posted privacy policy has been modified on this topic, since the Wealthsimple acquisition.
How to choose between TurboTax and Wealthsimple Tax?
For most relatively simple tax returns, both options will allow you to get the job done. For a breadth of features, the edge probably goes slightly in favour of TurboTax. On the other hand, if using a purely Canadian company is important to you and you and you like the “pay what you want” pricing model, SimpleTax may be the more attractive choice.
Rather have somebody else take care of it for you?
If you don’t quite have the confidence to prepare your own return, why not let Blackspark do it for you - we provide online, remote personal tax preparation, for a fixed fee. Your return will be prepared by a licensed Canadian chartered accountant that is an expert in the Canadian tax code. Our proprietary technology also makes getting your details to us a breeze. Which means you can have the peace of mind that your return is being handled by a professional, while you spend your time doing other things.
