Intuit ProSeries Tax

Thirty-five thousand tax professionals is the figure Intuit puts against ProSeries, and the pricing explains a good deal of that install base. The 1040 Essentials plan is $2,605 a year for unlimited individual and state returns with every state included, business returns billed per return on top. Essentials at $3,641 swaps that for a bundle of 200 or 400 mixed individual and business returns with unlimited states. Advanced, which is unlimited on both sides, is quoted rather than listed. At the bottom, Professional pay-per-return starts at $539 for the licence and Basic 1040 starts at $729 for twenty individual returns on a single seat.

Day to day it is a forms-based Windows program with a HomeBase client list, one-click access to the calculation behind any number, and batch tools for repeating a task across many files. The form coverage runs 1040, 1040-NR, 1041, 1120, 1120-S, 1065, 990, 706 and 709. K-1 data imports from a completed entity return into the owner's 1040. Client Analyzer finds every client hit by a given tax change, and the Missing Client Information utility flags gaps while the return is still open rather than at review. Intuit Sign, with knowledge-based authentication, is bundled at no additional charge, though the IRS only accepts electronic signatures on individual modules, so the business forms still need wet signatures. Conversions are published from ATX, CrossLink, Drake, Lacerte, ProSystem fx, TaxAct, TaxSlayer, TaxWise and UltraTax CS, without a stated position on what happens to prior-year depreciation or carryforwards.

Two things weigh against it. The software installs on Windows and only on Windows, so a firm that wants cloud access buys a monthly hosting subscription from Rightworks on top of the licence, and that is a second recurring bill with its own user tiers. And Intuit's own cloud investment plainly runs to ProConnect, not here, which makes ProSeries the safe purchase rather than the forward-looking one. Scan-and-populate is not part of the package either, so a firm that wants documents read into the return is buying SurePrep, GruntWorx or an equivalent separately.

Against Drake Tax the comparison is close and turns on mix: Drake's $3,295 covers unlimited individual and business returns, where ProSeries at $2,605 covers unlimited 1040s and charges for entities. A firm with 300 individual returns and forty 1120-S filings should price both. Against Lacerte, ProSeries is the cheaper, shallower sibling, and the upgrade trigger is entity complexity. Against ProConnect it wins decisively on cost above roughly a hundred returns and loses on architecture.

The inherited tier was dated and the evidence does not support it. Intuit publishes current pricing for the 2026 season, ships new capability into the product, and the feature comparison lists items introduced this cycle. What is true is that the interface is old and the platform is a dead end relative to ProConnect. That makes it a strong option on price and install base, not a top pick.