UltimateTax

The software behind this brand is not UltimateTax's own, and the company says so directly in the FAQ on its pricing page: it began with Intellitax, became a partner of CCH TaxWise after that product was sold, and now offers TaxWise under its own brand with its own changes to the platform. Anyone evaluating this product is evaluating TaxWise, and every question about form coverage, calculation accuracy and e-file reliability is really a question about Wolters Kluwer's engine. That reframing is the most useful thing a buyer can know here, because it also means the pricing comparison is exact rather than approximate.

The editions are simple. Pay-per-return is $388 a year plus $20 an individual return and $40 a corporate return, running online with ten users and all states. Online 1040 is $888 for unlimited e-filing with ten users. Desktop 1040 is $988 with unlimited users on Windows. The 1040 + Corporate edition at $1,188 adds 1120, 1120S, 1065, 990 and 706 returns with unlimited users, and an online version of that desktop build costs $100 more. Every annual edition includes the 2025, 2024 and 2023 tax years and the ProClient client management system. Set against Wolters Kluwer's own list, where the equivalent capability is capped at 400 returns for $3,899 or 2,500 for $4,249, the gap is not marginal.

The catch is what a reseller can and cannot control. Support, release timing, roadmap and the continuation of the arrangement itself all sit with the partnership rather than with UltimateTax, and a firm that has built a busy season on the product would have limited recourse if the licensing relationship changed. The marketing also leans heavily on refund transfer volume, with editions becoming free at 30, 50 and 75 funded bank products, which tells you plainly that the intended customer is a preparer paid out of client refunds. Nothing is published about scan-and-populate, about what a conversion from a competitor preserves, or about a SOC 2 report or other third-party security certification, and the about page gives no founding date or headquarters.

Against TaxWise itself the choice is cost against directness: the same calculations for around a third of the money, with a middleman between the firm and the publisher. Against TaxSlayer Pro at $1,395 to $1,695 flat, UltimateTax is cheaper still and covers corporate returns at $1,188 where TaxSlayer needs the $1,695 Premium desktop package. Against Drake Tax the products are not really in the same conversation on support depth or firm reputation.

Dated was the inherited tier and it does not fit, since the underlying platform is the one Wolters Kluwer is currently adding document extraction and browser-based entity returns to. Strong-option is the accurate placement, on a specific and narrow fit: it is the cheapest published route to a mainstream 1040 and entity engine, for a small office that understands it is buying through a reseller and prices that risk accordingly.