Customer Reviews

TaxCut 2002 State Edition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I have always been comfortable in filling out and filing my own tax forms, but in recent years, when I was making changes in where my mutual funds were invested, the forms required by both federal and state governments proved daunting. Using TaxCut State made things much easier. I have used TaxCut Federal for several years now and started with TaxCut State last year and it has been a wonderful! No need to run to the post office or other government building to get the forms. One word of caution though: the cost of the program is free after rebate when you purchase TaxCut Federal Deluxe or Platinum versions, and for one state only.

After installing Taxcut Platinum for Home and Business on my "D:" drive and spending 2 hours downloading the updates and getting started on doing the taxes, I attempted to install the Taxcut State edition. However it only installs to the C: drive.

Imagine a billion dollar company which forces you to install its products on only the C: drive. Small bug? Slight programming problem? So now to get it to work, I have to reinstall the whole thing (TaxCut for home and Business) on my C: drive and download the updates again, where I don't have room (that's why I have D, E, F,... drives). Another evening of installing and downloading spent because of the programming weirdness of Tax Cut. Last year and the year before I had to get them to send me new CD's because the ones they sent me had R/W errors on them, and were unusable.

I called their help desk and they didn't see anything odd about their unique installation - forcing the user to install to the C: drive.

Thank God, there's some competition for these guys or this program would be a lot worse.

Once you get it installed, it seems to work fine. In fact I love the program. So I give it a "5" for being great program, but a "1" for the annual installation problems.

Will not allow you to electronically file with a state of prior residence. Did not provide or support many of the forms for Wisconsin. Really has trouble with W2's from different states.

It was a waste of money.

So I thought that because H&R Block was involved, this would be a great tool. So, so wrong! The streaming video was a cool aspect, but when you are entering information and get to the charitable deduction section, you find that this portion of the program wasn't completed by the time of release (this is what it says in the program itself), so it isn't so cool anymore. You need to go to the Tax Cut website and download the rest of this product. This is all fine, except I never could download -- my system kept saying 'no response'. By the way, for tax information updates on TUBRO TAX (which I purchased after trying this piece of junk), the program opened the internet, chose the correct updates and downloaded in a matter of minutes.

The program also kept showing errors because I wasn't including state taxes - which Washington doesn't have -- so it would check and fax successfully. I finally was so frustrated, I uninstalled, bought TURBO TAX and tossed this piece of junk in the trash.

Do I sound frustrated? Yes I am. When I spend money on a product, I expect it to work within reason. Hey, I worked in software, and I understand that there are glitches. But, when you leave an entire section of software out of the product, and try to patch it with a download, then the company is looking for bucks, not returning customers. That's like buying a bike, only to find that you need to send away for the wheels because they weren't available when the bike was assembled and shipped!!!

Thank goodness this product was free. I am a previous user of TurboTax, and I found that the TaxCut federal was fine (perhaps even easier in many respects), so I was very pleased with that. However TaxCut State (Minnesota) was completely worthless! I scrapped it and did my state taxes by hand. The state program did transfer federal information that was relevant, but then the rest of the interview consisted of. "Read the instructions to form ___, and fill out" After about 5 screens like this (and 3 forms that were irrelevant to my tax situation), I gave up. It's easier to read the instructions and fill out the forms from the paper copy (plus I don't encounter so many irrelevant forms). Very disappointing! Try it if it's free (perhaps your state is better), but don't waste your time or money if it's not free.

I think it's shameful that H&R Block is selling a product that can easily create an inaccurate return for someone who trusts the software. The following is from my letter of complaint to them:

"I suspect your software creates inaccurate returns for many, if not most, Delawareans unless they are careful and override your defaults. Below I've listed the major problems that I encountered:

a. Your software automatically assumed "joint" filing, whereas the Delaware instructions make it very clear that when each spouse's income exceeds $9400, married couples in Delaware are generally better off to file using the status "Married & Filing Combined Separate."

b. Once I did override the "Joint" filing status (I had to read the Delaware instructions carefully to learn that we would be better off to do that), I couldn't figure out why your software calculated higher taxes using "Married & Filing Combined Separate" than under "Joint" filing. Eventually I realized that when I overrode the "Joint" filing to go to "Married and Filing Combined Separate," your software automatically switched from using itemized deductions to using standard deductions.

c. Necessary adjustments to the federal AGI were not made. When I completed our federal return with TaxCut, I included information on muni fund dividends that are taxable by my state (though not the federal government). I also noted that some of the income was "interest on U.S. obligations" that should not have been taxed by Delaware (though they are taxed by the federal government). Each of these should have been entered as "modifications to federal AGI" on the Delaware form and were not. In fact, when I entered the appropriate dollar amounts in the "spouse" column (Column A) of the Modification to Federal AGI form, your software automatically - and incorrectly - entered a negative dollar amount in the "you" column (Column B) so that the amounts would total to zero. I had to then override the spouse column.

d. When I overrode the default so that itemized deductions would be used, the deductions should have been allocated between the two spouses in proportion to their incomes. Your software merely put all itemized deductions under the "you" column, none were allocated to the "spouse." I had to calculate and enter the allocation manually for each deduction.

e. Your software designates Delaware as one of the states that "do not permit e-filing." Perhaps your software doesn't support e-filing in Delaware, but to say that Delaware does not permit it is untrue. I e-filed our Delaware return last year with TurboTax and the 2002 Delaware instructions clearly encourage it (you can read this in the complete set of Delaware instructions that you provide in lieu of any real help menu to support this state's software).

f. Your "interview" for Delaware consisted of one screen after another saying "Complete this form if necessary." Short of browsing the entire (unindexed) set of state instructions, users were given no guidance to help in deciding whether they needed to complete the forms or how to do so. Many of the forms were clearly inappropriate given the information entered for the federal return; for example, your interview should not have asked us about completing the Delaware form for people who are over 60 or disabled. Even the state software didn't "talk" to itself - while showing that I was owed a Delaware refund, your "interview" stated that if I owe more than $400 I should calculate the penalty.

In addition to purchasing your Delaware state software, I purchased your New York software so that we could file 2002 taxes for a recently deceased relative from that state. Your New York software carried over information from the federal return to the state return very appropriately. The New York interview mode asked pertinent questions and provided relevant help regarding terminology and nuances.

In contrast, your Delaware product is shameful. I imagine that many Delawareans' tax returns were calculated incorrectly by your software. As a business professor, the greatest utility of your product to me is as a scenario for discussions of business ethics.

Your software's "help" offering for completing the Delaware return was merely the complete set of state instructions, which I selected from a menu of states that all seem to have low populations (Hawaii, Montana, New Hampshire, etc.). I can only assume that your firm has chosen to sell poorly-developed software to residents of all of these low-population states."

Using the CA edition. I have used TurboTax in the past and was used to them asking me questions to see if a tax rule applies to me. Many times, TaxCut State has just referred me to the CA instructions (not always included electronically), which makes me wonder why I even bought the software. The help system is substandard. For example in the interview, "California provides special credits and acceleration write-offs which may cause the basis of an asset to be different for California and federal depreciation." That sounds lovely, but the help system does not explain these special differences and I can find nothing explaining them on the California government tax sites. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that I don't get audited.

The only "glitch" I encountered was at the final error check. The program told me I failed to enter the date of my return, even though I followed each process exactly as the program instructed. The program just failed to ask me (or recognize) what date I was filing my return. Once that entry was manually made, it was clear sailing again. I have used TaxCut software for the past 6 years and have been very pleased with how easy it is to prepare my returns.

I was frustrated when I found that the California version does not include the Form 3510 (CREDIT FOR PRIOR YEAR ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX) which I feel should be needed by many in the Silicon Valley where incentive stock options are popular. The customer support instructed me to download the form from California's FTB web site, then print it out, fill it in with pen, then plug in the numbers to the proper places in the program. And because the form has to be mailed in, I cannot use e-filing. Oh well, what to expect when it is free!

I found both the federal and state versions of TaxCut to be inferior to TurboTax. The worst part that due to some "errors" (which were not errors at all) I was unable to file electronically.

I would have felt much more confident filing my return if I had gone with TurboTax.