Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I was OK with this program and the reviews up until I needed to import data from my financial institutions. There is no capability to do this from such major institutions as Fidelity Investments or Chase Bank and countless others. That's a huge disadvantage for anyone who has a decent number of stock, mutual fund or other taxable financial transactions over the course of a year. TurboTax is a much better software package if that is what you need.

Don't buy this software if you are a nonresident alien; it does not include the 1040NR form you need to complete. You'll just have to go to irs.gov and do it yourself.
Looks like I threw my money down the drain here.

We've been having an accountant do our taxes for the past five years, and I finally decided to give this a try this year. Overall it's very easy to use. It asks a series of questions guiding you through possible deductions and credits, and has a button in the lower right-hand corner that will show you the actual spot on the IRS forms where your answers are going, if needed. This was great for me, as I was comparing last year's (done by the accountant) to this year's. If I got lost, I could just look at the actual IRS form and see the box being discussed.
This also includes free efile, which is handy. I chose the download option from Amazon, which had this on my computer within three minutes, didn't even have to wait on the mail. I had no issues at all with installing the software or using it.
My only complaint came with the state part of the software. I'm in California, and perhaps my issues stem from the slightly crazy laws in my state rather than the software. The software would offer me 5-6 optional deductions, and if I pressed "more info" to see if they applied, it would give me a 1-line message from the State of California that made absolutely no sense, referring me to previous tax history searches online.
All in all, the federal part was easy to use and worthwhile. I just wish they'd spent a little more time adding in helpful information for the state part in my case (California).

I've used Tax Cut for 3 Tax seasons now & It is truly easier to use and a cut above the other Tax programs. I purchased the premium version & I imported last year's return in about 2 clicks. I plan on e-filing again & this copy allows users to file up to 5 e-file returns. I own my own business and the schedule C interview makes depreciation schedules and legit deductions a breeze. Also, there is a built in audit/review feature that will help you "tweek" your tax return and Q.C. before sending it to the IRS. I downloaded this 2009 version on the web using road-runner a 5 minute download which results in FREE SHIPPING. A Highly recommended purchase - used to pay my CPA over $[...] bucks for this same service. Hope this review helps & builds confidence if you're considering this product ! [...]

This was my first software download from Amazon, so I had to install their program. Running XP and Firefox latest version (3.6ish), it only took a couple of minutes to get the tax software on my laptop and running. I did have some momentary confusion between Deduction Pro and At Home. Next year Block should consider having At Home autolaunch after the install, or at least prompt for At Home to start.
The software itself is as good as ever. I used Turbo Tax for a couple of years, then switched to TaxCut and have 3-4 years experience with their style. The only drawbacks I see for most filers are grouping some major tax relief options with minor ones, and a lack of clarity in the help files as to where in the software to go to input certain data. In my case, I missed the tuition deduction checkbox, and the help file did not direct me to the right section of the interview to add it in. Links in the help file would eliminate the problem, and would not be difficult to add. OTOH, the addition was copied to both the federal and state forms.
Overall a good product, both the software and the download experience.

This is the buggiest software I have seen in a long time. No regard for flexibility and convenience at all...

It starts with the installer. First you need to download Amazon Installer, just to be able to download the tax software. The download auto-extracts to C:\Program Files\... (and my OS happens to be on D: drive!). Then you are prompted to save installation package in some other place. Only then can you install the tax software while the tax filing key remains somewhere in the online Amazon account... way too complicated!

The program is being silently blocked by every firewall imaginable and even by Avast antivirus. Even with all antiviruses and firewalls disabled, it sometimes won't connect to internet or print to PDF and need to be killed, and then start working again with no system settings changed. Just seeing that HTTP request failed takes 5 long minutes of pointless progress bar animation.

I have used previous generations of TaxCut and was quite satisfied. But the 2009 version is a poor poor software engineering job!

I always use HR Block TaxCut to do my taxes; I have a small work-at-home business to bring in some extra money and TaxCut helps me save time and money doing my taxes; I feel confident that I am able to take advantage of all the possible deductions that apply to me and it is simple to use. I purchased from Amazon because they provided the Best Price and I was able to download immediately.