Tax software needs 10.7 or later.

[dosuna11]

The arms of Apple are looming again. I have a bullet proof 10.68 OS on my iMac i5 quadcore. Turbo tax needs 10.7 or later. I do not want to upgrade OS.(too much chance of loss of everything that works great and the time trouble shooting) Can I/how would I put 10.7 on a separate drive and boot into it just for taxes without it affecting my happy heart and OS 10.68 plug-ins templates DP etc....? Is this collusion?

[HCMarkus]

Use external bootable drive, install OS and restart from that drive.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Ouch! That stings.

[mikehalloran]

This is an ancient problem (in Mac years). I had to upgrade from my Mac+ in 1992(?) when MacInTax would no longer run. Later, it happened to my Performa 6200 causing me to upgrade to a G3 in 1997. Later I upgraded for other reasons and managed to keep ahead of TurboTax. So it goes.

Fortunately, only PPCs are affected (this year? last? year before?). AFIK, all Intel Macs can run Lion. If you want to run the latest version, you will need to update your OS.

You can add a drive to most Macs or partition the drive you have or get a larger drive that you can partition... If you have a 2009 or 2010 iMac, a usb external will work (slow but...), 2011 on can use a Thunderbolt external; 2012 on can use usb 3 which is less expensive. I will recommend Yosemite on that partition or external; it's much better than Lion.

You have choices whether you like it or not--I know I didn't like it either back in the day. You don't need to upgrade your hardware ... yet. You may not need to cross that bridge for years.

There are applications that require ML which means they won't run on Core Solo or Core Duo Macs. Not your issue, I know (since you have an i5) but it is coming some day.

Now that I think of it, there's no surprise. QuickBooks 2014, a long awaited upgrade, required OS 10.7 when it was released last year.

[mhschmieder]

Removed post. Written in anger because I have inside knowledge on the company being discussed, and do not feel comfortable sharing it on a public forum as it is way too O.T. and isn't worthy of causing potential harm.

[Gravity Jim]

On the contrary, TurboTax isn't "useless." My taxes are fairly complicated (schedule C, stocks, freelance income without 1099, higher than normal medical deductions, blah, blah), and it works great. And the 50 bucks I spend on it is way less than an accountant would charge and deductible in the next year. I've learned enough about the tax code from using it that I can now spend an afternoon organizing paperwork and a quick day doing my own return.

Also, you should probably avoid turning your own opinion and pure conjecture ("probably more up to date?") into fact through forceful statement. Like H&R Block (formerly Kiplinger's), TurboTax is updated at launch all the way up to the filing deadline.

[mikehalloran]

(regarding the fact that you can't use it the next year even if the tax rules are the same

Please, in what two years was that ever true? Seriously, I'd like to know. I've been doing mine since 1971 and have never noticed this.

On the contrary, TurboTax isn't "useless." My taxes are fairly complicated (schedule C, stocks, freelance income without 1099, higher than normal medical deductions, blah, blah), and it works great. And the 50 bucks I spend on it is way less than an accountant would charge and deductible in the next year. I've learned enough about the tax code from using it that I can now spend an afternoon organizing paperwork and a quick day doing my own return.
...
Like H&R Block (formerly Kiplinger's), TurboTax is updated at launch all the way up to the filing deadline.

Or beyond. Last year, I had to file some late returns last year and it was still updating in October.

Where do you find it for $50 if you do Schedule C's? The best price I found for Home and Business was $79. I already bought it.

I am a firm believer in understanding and doing my own taxes. The last year I did them by hand was 1986 – I bought my Mac+ the fall of that year and MacInTax at the 1987 MacWorld. I do my daughter's on 1040EZ but haven't been able to do mine on one since 1979.

The time savings from having the program look up last year's return, inventory, instruments, business equipment and keep track of depreciation is worth every penny. I know because, for years, I did that all by hand and it took me weeks.

Yes, I hated having to upgrade my hardware twice because my otherwise perfectly good Mac could no longer run MacInTax. Likewise, I always disliked that generating W2s had to be done on a Windows machine or from QuickBooks. Now they direct you to generate W2s and 1099s online, it's no longer an issue.

[dosuna11]

Loaded Yosemite on USB 2.0 drive. Crazy slow.and it did not show up on the start up drive menu. What now? Any suggestions? I am back to 10.6.8.

[mikehalloran]

Option boot and see if the drive shows up. If so, select and you should be good. It will be very slow.

If that doesn't work, go to System Preferences/Startup Disk. Wait a bit and and see if the drive shows up so that you can select the boot folder. Restart.

If you don't see your usb drive in System Preferences/Startup Disk, you didn't install Yosemite correctly on the drive.

It will be slow but it should work. An Intel Mac will boot from a usb 2 volume with a properly installed system.

[billf]

Is this collusion?

I doubt it, Intuit seems to want to go down a path to self destruction:

http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/01/12 ... sers-livid

http://www.amazon.com/TurboTax-Deluxe-S ... 00NG7JVSQ/

[dosuna11]

I picked up a 3.0 USB thumbdrive and loaded Yosemite on it. It is much faster. What sucky graphics. TurboTax now works. Taxes OK let's pay.