Customer Reviews

H&R Block At Home 2009 Basic Federal + eFile [Formerly TaxCut] [Download] [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been using H&R Tax Cut for years. They've changed the name but the product is still the same. What I like most about this tax software is that it is easy to retrieve data from last year's return so you don't have to re-enter a lot of information that is the same. The steps walk you through every aspect of your taxes making sure you don't miss a thing. If you have some options, like whether to file jointly or separately, you can easily do multiple returns and compare results, or just make a simple change on the one return and note how it affects the refund. Although I never use this feature, you can download some information from the internet and it goes directly into the proper location on your return. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is that it costs more than the free TaxAct that is available online. But I don't want to put my information out there so I don't use TaxAct. Even with the most basic version of At Home you can do every personal tax situation, including capital gains, farm, self employment, and you can file up to five efile returns for free. What I don't understand is H&R sends me their deluxe version, not once, but twice, and thinks I will pay more than double what the basic version costs at Amazon. I should have waited a few weeks because the price has come down since I bought mine.

you should just buy the CD, it's worth the added $1 to save on hassle.

first you have to download and install the amazon.com SW loader. then you have to download and install this.

then when you go to efile you have to go back to amazon, go to this page, go to your software library and click another tab to get the product code that would have just been printed on the cd.

Taxact Basic.
I purchased this download approx 24hrs ago and it required me to install a download application in order to acquire the software. After installing their app it downloaded a corrupt zip file that contained what I purchased, I tried multiple times to download with same results. I sent a message to Amazon and 24hrs later still no response! I have nothing to show for my money. On top of that the download app wants to run every time I boot up my PC, it's the only thing that works! I am NOT a a happy customer!

I downloaded this software and it worked pretty well. Then the problems started. When it asked me if I was ready to e-file the return, and I answered yes, it asked me for a keycode which I was to enter in order to send my return for free. The software indicated "the key code is in an e-mail you received." Unfortunately, I had never received any e-mail of any sort from either Amazon or H&R Block. So I called the H&R Block customer service number indicated on the software. I was able to obtain my key code that way. Fine. The software saved my return but unfortunately uses a program developed by or on behalf of H&R Block. So I could not read my tax return because apparently whatever program it uses isn't working. The software does not save the return in word or adobe format. The software does ask you if you'd like to save the return in Adobe format. I answered yes but the software refuses to save the return. So on my computer I have a copy of my return I can't read. I called H&R Block service center yet again and it became apparently pretty quickly that they were unable to give me a quick answer to how in the world I am to read my return, or convert it to Adobe. The software is supposed to do that, but apparently mine won't, at least not easily.
The bottom line is this--given the amount of time I've already spent on this, I could have just as easily completed and filed a paper return, had a copy of it for my records, not made 2 calls to a service center, and maybe more calls after this.
Never again. If you ask me this program isn't even worth the $20.00, given the amount of work I've had to do just to get it to work correctly, and I still don't know if I'll ever see my return.

I was a little leery about the product after reading the reviews and having already brought the product. (READ THE REVIEWS FIRST) However, I had a real positive experience. The tax program helped me a catch a tax credit (Schedule M) that I had missed. The feedback review helped me be aware of potential problems. My only one suggestion is to....

= Print the key code as I was never able to find the file in the reference library where it was stored. Luckily I had wrote the key code correctly.

Overall, I thought it was easy to do (I am know computer whiz by any means) and we will get the tax return back quicker then mailing it in. The money spend was worth it.

If you are like me you try to do your own taxes too. If you are filing EIC, student loan interest, etc it no longer is something that you can completely do on your own. This software walks you right the entire process very simply. I was done with the entire process in about an hour all together.