Customer Reviews

H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Basic Federal + e-file [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

TaxCut offers individuals a powerful option for preparing an income tax return that is relatively easy to use. TaxCut assumes that you know little or nothing about income tax law. The software will ask a number of questions and will prompt you for information based on your answers. It will help tremendously if you gather as many of your tax documents as possible before starting. This software is significantly cheaper than paying a service to prepare it and much easier than doing in manually.

The e-file option has been around for some years and is a great way to get your refunds faster. But if you owe money, there's not as much of an advantage. Still, you get five free electronic filing so you might as well use one. In the unlikely event that you plan to prepare more than five returns, make sure you use the e-file for the ones due a refund and file the ones with money due manually. The program will print all the forms you need so it's easy to do and it will save you the cost of the fees for the additional e-files.

There are a couple of issues to take note of if you buy this version of TaxCut. First, this version covers only federal tax returns and does not include a program for state taxes. If you live in a state with no income tax, this is the version you want. But if you do need to file with your state, you'll want to buy the H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Premium Federal + State + e-file version. Second, there are some tax tools not included in this package that would require the H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Premium Federal + e-file version. These probably won't be needed by everyone, but take a good look at the chart in the product description area to see if you will miss the features or not.

If you don't itemize your deductions and have a very simple return, you might be better off preparing the forms manually on your own. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you have a return with major league complications, you should probably go to a good CPA. For everyone else, this is really a no-brainer. It's inexpensive, easy to use, and accurate. I've been using TaxCut for quite a few years and would not even consider giving it up.

Several years ago I switched from TurboTax to TaxCut because TaxCut was less expensive and did virtually the same thing. Since then that has always been the case so I have never switched back. For most people, TaxCut basic will handle all your requirements. I recently started using Schedule F and it was complete and simple. I was worried that I might need Premium, but now I can't see why anyone who doesn't need to file a state return would would need anything but Basic. I live in Texas, but it's still hard to find anything but the Premium version in the stores. But no matter which version you get, the questionnaire makes it easy to get every deduction you are entitled to and navigation to any form is easy.

I've recently reviewed Turbotax as well, with it's shortcomings I ordered Taxcut as well since my faith in TT was not very sound. I give Taxcut 4 stars for finding deductions, three stars for usability and 1 star for the most important thing of all: getting me my refund! It would not let me electronically file informing me: The IRS is not ready to receive your return due to certain tax form delays. An update will be ready on February 7th. This was January 31st...no problem. On February 7th it was updated to March 10th. I should have pursued it further but eventually today I contacted Taxcut support to see what the real story was. Even though the forms were updated Jan 31st they hadn't finished the update for the software and now it would be March 12th! I will take some responsibility here. But they should have advised me it would have been faster to paper file and not have blamed the IRS for their shortcomings. I returned to Turbotax and filed that way with no problem. So basically Turbotax + Taxcut MIGHT = a real tax software program.

When it comes right down to it, there is not a lot of software out there that is used for ONE basic thing. This software is for filing your tax return in a correct but also a timely manner. As far as I can tell both Turbotax and Taxcut fail if you don't have all but a very simple return to file this year.
Comment

If you've ever used Turbo Tax and liked it then this will be an easy transition for you. The question and answers are virtually the same. Additionally you get 5 free filings--Turbo Tax made me pay last year. This was the main reason I switched.

With going into great detail, H&R Block offers the same features most people would benefit from.

This is extremely easy to install, easy to use, easy file file, easy to print. Basically, filing my taxes were made easy and affordale by H&R Block.

having switched to Turbo tax last year, I switched back this year to Tax Cut. Maybe I'm just used to this software, but I find it easier to switch back and forth between forms, and generally easier to use. There is no state income tax where I live, so this version fits my needs perfectly.

I've used Turbo Tax Basic for years but thought I'd save ten bucks and try Tax Cut Basic. Penny wise, pound foolish. If you really have a simple return, Tax Cut will be fine, but if you expect to easily download financial data from banks, investment firms, etc. you will not be happy. Turbo Tax Basic does and now I've had to go back to it.

The deduction program included is a beta version and is full of bugs, so worthless.

The description of this product shows Mac OS X as a platform but when you go to the download it is Windows only.

The only problem with this version is that from time to time it prompts you to purchase the premium version, which I did not. My return was fairly complicated, with a installment commercial real estate sale, a rental, and some capital gains. It did it all quite well, and printed out the worksheets for paper records if you want them. Just ignore the upgrade prompts. The hardest part of doing your taxes is getting the stuff together anyway. This worked, and downloaded the latest tax code revisions. I actually bought it in a dollar store. It is a little hard to remove from your PC. If you are persistant you can do it. You will need to delete the folder in C: Programs (only if you know what you are doing!). I stored everything on a extra SD card (16MB). There is a pitch to sell the state return after completion of the Federal. Save your money. The state return (IL) is easy after doing the Federal.

Tax Cut will not import anything from Quicken 2008 correctly. The box conveniently does not tell you this and you won't find out until you've gotten it installed, and are half way thru. Didn't find out until I called Tech Support. What a waste of time and money - I used Quicken all year hoping it would speed things up come tax time but apparently only if you then buy Turbo Tax.

There were numerous other 'little' problems I noticed. So many that I would never buy this product again. The money you'll save is just not worth the headache.

I think this product was a great deal. We've used turbotax in the past but it's just so expensive this year. This Taxcut product was perfect. I worried that it might not be as good but it was just fine. We did our taxes no problem and also our parents taxes. Thanks taxcut! I also used the deduction pro software. It was just o.k. but for the most part it did it's job.