Question regarding state returns on Basic ProSeries

[Mitchell24]

Hi it’s my first year doing taxes and I had a quick question regarding ProSeries Basic.  For the software it allows either 1 state return or 2, depending if you prepay for 20 or 50 federal returns.  My question is, do those states need to be selected when you set up the software, or is it based off of each individual return.  If I buy the 20 basic with one state and do two separate federal returns with separate states, am I paying for extra states, or does it not charge since each individual return only has one state attached.  I’ve had years where I have 3-4 different state returns attached to the same federal return, so I didn’t know which it was referring to.  Just looking to budget out correctly for the tax year.  Thanks!

[TaxGuyBill]

You can license two states for unlimited use over all returns.  You can either pick the States when you set up the program, or wait until you actually want to file/print the a tax return with that State.

You will want to license the two States that you will use most, as they are unlimited use over all of the tax returns that you prepare.  If you prepare a tax return that needs a State beyond the two that you picked, you will need to pay for it on a Pay-Per-Return basis for each tax return.

[Mitchell24]

Understood.  I’ll take that into consideration before purchasing software. Thank you for the response!