Amazon.com: H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium Federal + State + eFile [Formerly TaxCut] [Download] [OLD VERSION]: Software

21 Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

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3.4 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)

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76 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good program -- eFiling tricky to find "key code", January 29, 2010

Philip Klatte (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

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This review is from: H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium Federal + State + eFile [Formerly TaxCut] [Download] [OLD VERSION] (Software Download)

This program was very easy to us, and it was surprisingly easy to go back and change things after half filling it in. I filled out most of the form long before I got my W-2 and 1099s, and going back was no problem. When going back in the form, the only thing I recommend is using the tabs to go to the right section ("Personal", "Dependents", "Income", "Adjustments", etc.) and then clicking on the "Go To" link for the _summary_ of that category. This allows you to hone right in on what you want to find; it's easy to get stuck in the linear input process if you don't use some direction.

The biggest problem was that you have to find the "key code" that comes with this version of the program, allowing for 5 free e-files. All the in-program help said that if you downloaded the program, the code would be mailed to you, and it even showed what such an email might look like. I checked the email I have registered with Amazon, and my email I might have put in during registration (I couldn't remember if there had been a registration process), and I couldn't find the "key code". It turns out that there is no email. ...you need to go to the Amazon folder that gets put in your Start Menu, as a part of installing the downloader. In that folder ("Amazon"-->"Amazon Games & Software") there is an icon labelled "Go to Your Games & Software Library". If you click on that, then click to "view order key", it will show you the "key code". The key code does not look like the example that H&R Block shows you ("ABCD-1234"), it _is_ four characters -dash- four characters, but it's totally random looking (not letters on one side and numbers on the other -- e.g. "HQ8F1-RG29L" -- I almost didn't recognize it after looking at the example that H&R Block had in their Help text).

I used TurboTax last year. I switched this year to H&R Block At Home because I wasn't happy with it and someone in a review had mentioned this program. I am much happier with H&R Block than TurboTax -- it seems much less like a random series of questions, and I can guess what it's getting at on the forms when it' asking me questions.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Glitch with the November Homebuyers Credit, February 22, 2010

Cat Herder "Don" (Bryan, TX United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium Federal + State + eFile [Formerly TaxCut] [Download] [OLD VERSION] (Software Download)

I have been using this product since 2004. I liked it better than Intuit's TaxCut when I compared them head to head.

Sure, it was clunky, but it seemed to have the tax code down pat and the step by step methodology was effective.

This year H&R Block renamed the product and put a slightly slicker interface on the product. Unfortunately, they seemed to have missed a few things under the hood.

I've spent about three hours with the software this evening and have found two problems. One minor and one major. They are both related to the sale of our old house and purchase of another house in 2009.

The minor issue is that the software makes it easy to enter the data to support a home office deduction. For the last two years we have been claiming my wife's office as it was qualified in all respects. We sold that house last year and while doing the interview on the sale, it wanted me to calculate who much depreciation IT calculated in prior years. Umm, if the darn software can read last year's return, surely it could extract last year's depreciation. It would be reasonable to expect it to ask for other Taxcut save files to extract add'l years depreciation. But it can't/won't. That's minor compared to my next discovery.

We have read and re-read IRS publication 5405 - related to the Federal Homebuyer's credit. The form seems clear. We appear to be eligible for $6500 for helping the economy. A nice surprise! The software even has the right IRS form, with the right date, and it calculates correctly. Yet.....the INTERVIEW doesn't address the November 2009 extension covering existing homebuyers hwo buy a new home. That's looking like a defect to me.

So, I availed myself of the support options:
1. I called the 800 # (nice that it's 24x7 this time of year). Waited a modest 4 minutes, and a nice lady with perfect English. She asked for my email, and then we were disconnected.
2. Good thing I also had the CHAT page up and another tech showed up. I explained the issue and he asked me to double check that the software was indeed up to date (I told the software to update 3 times). All he could offer was an apology and did not know of anyway for me to report what appears to be a defect. He did offer that if I filed and there was an error and a fine, H&R Block would cover me up to $10,000. I explained an omission may be an error, but it there wouldn't be a fine. Thus H&R Block was not going to cover this situation.

Frankly, if I finish my return using this software I'm going to need whiteout to add the credit when I follow the IRS requirement to print the return (and supporting documents) and mail it in. [DRG - see updated notes below].

I hope this is so obvious that H&RB knows about it - perhaps the economy is so bad I'm their only customer fortunate enough to buy a house this year? I don't know. I'm going to give their corporate office a call tomorrow and see what happens when I "ask for the President's office". If that doesn't work then Amazon can refund my money and Intuit can suck me a little bit drier as I'll have to become one of their Zombies this year.

Updated 3/1/2010
I called their HQ during the day and asked for a manager, after some quick forwarding I was talking to a manager and explained the situation and why I felt that there was an incomplete feature. The outcome was two fold:
1. I was shown that you can use the attached IRS forms in lieu of the interview. The credit did calculate correctly - I just have to avoid using that particular interview.
2. I spoke with a support tech who knew how to handle tech savvy customers and professionally represent his company. After taking exquisite notes, and reading them back to me, he assured me that they were going to get this over to "engineering". I believe him.

So I continue on feeling much better about the situation.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ....Even this Caveman can do it!, March 7, 2010

Ed - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium Federal + State + eFile [Formerly TaxCut] [Download] [OLD VERSION] (Software Download)

Having been a loyal(?) TurboTax user since 1997 I found the blogs full of disdain about TurboTax 2009 (State returns limited to one, shammy marketing tactics, up-selling tactics, price, moved R&D to Bangalore, India, shabby support, etc), so I decided to try H&R Block At Home Premium(formerly TaxCut).
I ordered the download version on Amazon and had no problem with the download or install on my Windows XP machine.
(I did follow the advice from one reviewer to download the Amazon game loader first and download a free game to make sure it works....no problems and great advice...Thanks!)
I have now completed 3 Federal and State returns using H&R Block At Home (2 very simple children's returns and my more complex self employed with depreciable assets and somewhat complex investments). I have found this program as easy to use as (if not easier than) TurboTax, and it does not have the annoying up-sell marketing stuff that comes in TurboTax. I was able to import previous year tax files from TurboTax with no problem and it appears that everything carried over properly. My only complaint is the very limited financial institution downloads ( I doubt that I am the only customer using Chase Bank, TD Ameritrade, Vanguard, Fidelity, American Funds;)
I have already completed one Fed e-file and got an e-mail reply within 12 hours that the IRS accepted the return.
Just remember where to find your Key Code as you will need it when using the 5 included free Fed e-files. State e-files are available for an additional fee.
Overall, I highly recommend H&R Block At Home. I would give it 5 stars if they improve the financial institution download support.

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