accountant & turbotax getting different results

we've used turbotax all but 1 or 2 years in our adult lives, and this year we knew we would owe a lot in taxes from some investment income (not a typical tax situation for us) and wanted to have a real person sit with us and go through our taxes and advise us for 2015. accountant's result showing our taxes due took our breath away, to say the least, so i decided just to compare with turbotax using (presumably) all of the same information. turbotax's result is almost $1000 less, total due in taxes. is it typical that 2 accountants would use the same figures and come up with 2 very different results?

the accountant was using his own tax prep software, as most do these days. i can't imagine there would be vastly different ways of calculating one's taxes. or are there? any CPAs care to weigh in?

accountant & turbotax getting different results

Tax should be calculated the same way, regardless of software. Did you review the returns and make sure they matched line by line? Id personally trust the accountant over turbo, but it's definitely worth asking him or her to review return with you. Mistakes happen. In my experience, I have found that turbo tax has used the wrong rate especially when it comes to investments and also inputting investments is not very straightforward on turbo so I'd double check that as well.

accountant & turbotax getting different results

I always trust the accountant BUT I would have him explain the difference. If you can print the Turbotax so you can compare. He's human he may have made a mistake.