Lacerte Tax Review: Pricing, Features & Alternatives 2023
Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and CPA with 25 years of experience. He brings his expertise to Fit Small Business’s accounting content.
Danielle is a writer for the Finance division of Fit Small Business. She has owned a bookkeeping and payroll service that specializes in small business, for over twenty years.
Lacerte Tax, Intuit’s top-of-the-line tax solution, offers a variety of tools to help streamline your practice. It can be used for preparing the most complicated tax returns, such as consolidated returns and returns for oil and gas companies. It can import balances from QuickBooks Desktop and integrates with Intuit Practice Management.
Although it provides pricing for its pay-per-return plan, you must contact a sales representative for other pricing information. In exchange for your email, you can try the Lacerte Tax version with no printing and e-filing capabilities for free.
What We Like
- High-end software that provides a pay-per-return option
- Consolidate subsidiary tax returns
- Complete complex oil and gas returns
- Free trial with no e-file or print capability
What's Missing
- No upfront pricing
- No forms-based data entry
- No integrated billing clock
- Too expensive for some firms
Pricing
Lacerte Tax only provides pricing information for its REP plan; contact a sales representative for more about the other plans.
- Lacerte REP: Pay-per-return pricing for individual and business returns that range from $76 to $118, plus an annual license fee
- Lacerte 200 Federal 1040: 200 individual returns for a fixed price and business returns for a pay-per return fee
- Lacerte Unlimited: Unlimited individual and business returns for a fixed price
Use Cases
If you’re unsure whether Lacerte Tax is the right tax software for you, check out our list of the best professional tax software for more options.
Lacerte Tax Deciding Factors
Returns Supported | 1040, 1120, 1120S, 1065, 5500, 990, 1041, 706, 709 |
Pricing |
|
Free Trial | Yes (version with no e-file or print capability) |
Money-back Guarantee | No |
Customer Support | Phone, email, and website form |
Pay-per-Return Plan | Yes |
Lacerte Tax Alternatives
Best for: Firms with only a few returns to file | Best for: QuickBooks Online Accountant users | Best for: Firms looking to save money |
Cost: $345 for 10 returns, plus $29.99 each for additional returns | Cost: Pay-per-return starting at $94.95 for individual returns and $117.95 for business returns | Cost: Pay-per-return costs $566 per year, plus $90 for each individual return (including one state) and $118 for each business return (including one state) |
Lacerte Tax Software Pricing
Lacerte Tax offers three plans: Lacerte 200 Federal 1040, Lacerte Unlimited, and Lacerte REP (pay-per-return pricing). Prices for the first two plans are only available by contacting a sales representative.
Pay-Per-Return Pricing
Lacerte’s REP plan provides pay-per-return pricing for individual and business returns but also requires an annual license fee. Currently, that fee is $199 per year, down from its regular annual fee of $746.
1040 Federal + 1 State | $91 per return | ||
1040 Additional States | $65 per return | ||
Business/Exempt/Trust/Estate (Federal + 1 State) | $118 per return | ||
Business/Trust/Estate - Additional States | $76 per return | ||
Gift Tax/Employee Benefit - Federal | $78 per return | ||
Consolidated Corps | $118 per return | ||
Tax Scan and Import | $13 per return |
Lacerte Tax Features
Lacerte Tax has several useful features to help you save time with preparing your clients’ returns, including a missing client data tool and a trial balance utility. Its comprehensive tax analysis and planning tools enhance your service offerings:
- Missing client data tool: The built-in tool identifies fields with missing information and enables you to send requests to your clients for the required data and documents. This allows you to flag the missing field for future reference or until information is received, reducing the hassle of tracking down client data.
- E-organizer: This is a paperless option that assists with the organization and collection of information. You can send forms, questionnaires, and emails to clients, providing them with access to a customized, password-protected executable file. This file includes detailed information on how to use the organizer and frequently asked questions (FAQs).
- Trial balance utility: This is useful for developing a chart of accounts, modifying journal entries, reviewing trial balance reports, and more. It can also import data from QuickBooks and EasyACCT, which will seamlessly export to Excel.
- Comprehensive form library: Lacerte Tax gives you access to more than 5,700 forms, including multistate, K-1s, and 5500 benefit plan returns, which enable you to service a variety of clients and businesses.
- Tax analysis and planning tools: You have access to sophisticated tax analysis and planning tools:
- Tax Analyzer assists professionals with managing their clients’ liabilities and financial health, red-flagging amounts that are most likely to trigger an IRS audit.
- Tax Planner provides customized plans for each client’s future liability based on current and future state and federal tax rates.
Lacerte Tax Customer Support
Lacerte Tax’s technical support is included with purchase, and it is offered in the following ways:
- Toll-free phone support from Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time
- Email support
- Website support
- In-program help
- Help Me option with screen-specific topics
- IRS instructions per form
It also offers various levels of training courses and how-to video tutorials to help get you up to speed quickly. There is also a searchable knowledge base and community user forum.
Lacerte Tax Ease of Use
With a user-friendly interface, Lacerte Tax is easy to navigate and provides quick access to the forms, files, and associated data required for seamless tax preparation. The e-file wizard simplifies the process of filing multiple forms simultaneously, and the e-signature feature saves time and paper. The tabs are also strategically placed to match the tax return’s common flow, so it’s easy to learn and use.
Lacerte Tax User Reviews
Lacerte Tax reviews show that users like its ease of use, particularly the logical input options and form views. They also appreciated the customization options and integration with QuickBooks Desktop Accountant. However, some reviewers said that the product is expensive, especially because all significant improvements to the workflow or product capabilities are sold as an add-on, further increasing the cost.
The software earned the following average scores on popular review sites:
- G2: 4.1 out of 5 based on around 30 reviews
- TrustRadius: 9.1 out of 10 based on over 10 reviews
- Software Advice: 4.5 out of 5 based on about 5 reviews
FAQs
How expensive is Lacerte Tax?
Lacerte’s pay-per-return plan’s prices vary depending on the type of return—ranging from $65 to $118 per return, plus an annual license fee. For information about its other plans, Lacerte 200 Federal 1040 and Lacerte Unlimited, you must contact a sales representative.
Is Lacerte Tax easy to use?
Yes, Lacerte Tax is very user-friendly and comes equipped with many tools that will streamline the tax preparation process.
Is Lacerte Tax owned by Intuit?
Yes, Lacerte Tax is Intuit’s top-of-the-line tax preparation software.
Does Lacerte Tax offer a pay-per-return option?
Yes, Lacerte Tax offers a pay-per-return option, which is referred to as the Lacerte REP plan.
Bottom Line
Lacerte Tax is quality tax preparation software that’s right for any firm that prepares complicated tax returns regularly. Its range of useful tools include an expansive form library, a paperless option for organizing and collecting tax information, and a variety of tax analysis and planning tools. The platform includes time-saving features as well, such as QuickBooks Desktop integration.
