Customer Reviews

H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Home & Business + e-file [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

H&R Block's "TaxCut Home and Business" has been a great choice for me for several years, and each year they improve the product. I ordered the 2008 version today.

This package is remarkable. It includes software for your Form 1040 individual or joint tax return, plus programs to prepare your Corporation or S-Corp (Form 1120), Partnership (Form 1065), or Estate or Trust (Form 1041). State returns for all these is included. Employment tax return preparation (W-4, 1099 and so on) is also included.

For the personal return, electronic filing for federal is included (5 returns), but you will have to either mail your state return or pay a fee (reasonable by my lights) to file electronically. I don't think electronic filing is available for the business returns.

Anyway all this is in the package. Don't overbuy. If you don't have one of the businesses mentioned, just get the appropriate software for 1040 returns. But if you need to file for a business (Corp/Partn/EstTr) plus your individual return, this deal is hard to beat.

Let me end with a few cautions:

If you are buying "TaxCut Home and Business + E-file," you don't need to buy "TaxCut Premium + State + E-file." IT'S INCLUDED. I mention this specifically because they seem to be marketed together on this site.

The forms to be used for this year's income tax haven't been completed by IRS. They will be updating items during the first couple of months of 2009, and there's no way the software I'm buying today can include all of them. So I'll need to go to the HRBlock update site a few times (the software connects and links up) to get updates from both Fed and state.

With all tax software there is a learning curve, so "read the lines," think about what you're doing, allow adequate prep time, and review the results before you file. I think you'll be pleased.

PS - I used to work for H&R Block but have not for several years. I use the software because I think it's the best for the price.

I called Taxcut customer service at least 5 times to resolve the issue that the Business State Interview is not available at all. They asked me to wait until mid March due to the MA state tax forms are still not ready. I had to show them that all the MA forms are available on the website, it is the Taxcut software that is not working. I spent long hours talking to various customer service representatives, also to their supervisor, and still can't it resolved. I filed a couple of complains through their feedback system and still not hearing any replies. I will need to buy TurboTax to re-do the entire Business tax filing.

This is my third year using Taxcut. Up to this year I have been very satisfied with it. I started a business in 2008 so I bought the Home & Business version. As of Feb 1, the interviewer for GA S-corporations is still not available. I've spoken to customer service 4 times who all have told me that the GA interviewer is available and all they can tell me is to update my software. I update the freaking software everyday hoping that my GA interviewer will start working but it still isn't available. I'm not an idiot, I know how to update the software. I've tried reinstalling the software and running the update from a fresh install but it still doesn't work. Maybe there's something wrong on your end H&R Block! I have resorted to downloading the instructions for my GA forms and filling them in manually since it looks like the interviewer will never work. If I knew I was going to have to go through the instructions for the tax forms myself I wouldn't have bothered buying Taxcut.

I will never use Taxcut again, their customer service is useless and won't listen to your problems. Their only solution is to run the update. Next year I'm using TurboTax.

This is my 4th year for using "TaxCut". I have 2 small business corporations that I operate from my home office. One is on-line and the other is not. I can do the taxes, step by step using the included guide program for each business, print out the completed forms and mail them directly to the IRS. After completing my business taxes, I go right to doing my personal family income tax. When finished, it an easy process to file the results, electronically... right from my home computer.

The following year, the current "TaxCut" searches my computer for past filing records and incorporates the information that is needed into the current years program. TaxCut Home & Business is great for meeting my needs. I am comfortable using it because the guide asks simple questions and the program checks for errors when you complete inputting data.

Please be aware of a programming error in TaxCut Business 2008. can't run fail to run messages.xml file. make sure TaxCut Support has solved this issue before you buy it.
Nas

" Renee Product Manager H&R Block TaxCut Home & Business wrote:
Hi all. I'm the product manager at H&R Block for the TaxCut Home & Business product and I do apologize for this issue happening. I wanted to let all of you know that we are aware of it and are working to correct it as quickly as we can. I understand the frustration this has and continues to cause. Although it is not the best case, we do have a work around until the issue is resolved. Please follow the steps listed below or contact our Customer Care Center to help walk you through the work around on your system.
Steps to Corret Issue:
1. Click Start and choose Run
2. Type regedit and click OK
3. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Record
4. Right-click HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Record and choose Permissions
5. In the Group or user names section click Administrators (USERNAME\Administrators)
6. In the Permissions for Administrators select the Allow check mark for Full Control
7. Click OK and close the Registry Editor
8. Reinstall TaxCut Business 2008
9. After the reinstall is complete run TaxCut Business 2008
I do want to mention that following the steps exactly is very important. And, of course, it's always a safe bet to backup your registry key anytime.
Thank you for your patience. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make your experience with this product a great one.
Thanks!
Renee, Product Manager
H&R Block TaxCut Home & Business"

I switched to TaxCut this year due to Intuit's ridiculous pricing changes. I studied the TaxCut website carefully and concluded that it would cover my needs. TaxCut imported my 2007 information from TurboTax without any complaint.

I found the program to be less user-friendly and less complete in its interview than TurboTax, but I was able to get through the entire process without too much problem. However, when I conducted a final review of the results, I was stunned to find 2 outright errors.

The key error was that it ignored my AMT Capital Loss Carryover. The carryover was clearly part of my 2007 return, so I was surprised that it simply ignored this value on the 2008 calculation. When I called TaxCut support, they told me that TaxCut "does not support this feature". Remarkably, nowhere does their literature suggest that their product does not support some parts of the tax act. Even more remarkably, when it imported my 2007 data and saw that there was a 2007 AMT Captial Loss Carryover, the program did not bother to raise a warning that it was about to ignore this value.

So, I had to buy TurboTax afterall. TurboTax correctly calculated my AMT for 2008. After it was done, I did a line-by-line comparison of the TaxCut and TurboTax returns. I was even more stunned to find that this uncovered a simple math error in the TaxCut return. Yes, a math error -- TaxCut multiplied two numbers together and came up with the incorrect result. I triple-checked this bcause I could not believe it myself, but the TaxCut calculation is simply wrong (form 8829, line 41).

At this point, I have absolutely no confidence in the TaxCut product. I recommend you do not buy this project; if you do, my experience suggests there is more than a small chance that your TaxCut return will simply be wrong.

I've been using this product for years because it is so much less expensive than the same Turbo Tax software. Sure it's a little rough around the edges but I'm not enjoying doing my taxes anyway. But I am enjoying saving a few bucks with this software. My main complaint with the Business software is the fact that to import the data from last year you have to leave the previous year installation on your computer! Yeah right like I'm going leave this software on my computer after I file, or reload it if I get a new computer or have to reload the OS. It is stupid that it won't import the data from the previous year's return just by using the previous year's file and not entire program. The Home version does this fine so there is no reason the Business can't. Still worth the money though.

When I first used tax software, the interview was written for those who didn't understand the tax laws. To use this version, especially the Business side, you need to understand the tax terminology and how to fill in the forms. It's like the software designers have gotten lazy. It's still better than trying to do taxes without the software, but the gap is narrowing.

I switched to TaxCut some years ago, and have been a satisfied customer until I purchased the Home & Business version last year. While I was satisfied with the personal product last year, the business product was of such poor quality (I'm talking about software quality) that I swore I'd never make the mistake of buying it again. How soon we forget! I've purchased the 2008 edition, and just as last year, the business product is worse than shoddy work, it's atrocious! The software would not install on my XP system, and customer support was clueless. Because I am a consultant in software process improvement, I'm technically adept enough to figure out that I could install the business product by shutting down all Windows services prior to the install. Are you kidding me?! What technically unsophisticated consumer would ever be able to figure this out? Once I succeeded in installing the product, it appeared to update to the latest release properly, and reported that the product is up-to-date. While it appears to function normally, it vaguely reports an "incompatible software" error at startup and says it cannot run until the incompatability is resolved. I've wasted hours on this, and won't be wasting any more. Head whack! I could shoot myself for being sucker enough to buy this turkey a second time. Since I paid good $$$ for it, I think I'll stick with the personal product one last time, but I'm headed off to buy TurboTax for my business return. After years as a custumer, I won't buy H&R Block software again. They appear to have zero quality control where the business version of TaxCut is concerned. Don't say you haven't been warned!

Do not buy TAX CUT 2008 for Home and Business if you have Windows XP. The business portion does not load. When the on-line fix did not work, I called Customer service where they said they were unaware of the error, but promised to call me within 2 business days. That was January 5, 2009. It is January 28 and I have still not heard from them. They have since posted a new fix on the web, but it did not work.

I HAVE USED Tax Cut for 2 years because it is cheaper than Turbo Tax which I used for 5 years previously. I have since purchased Turbo Tax and I it does work on my computer and it is easier to navigate. DO NOT BUY TAX CUT Business.