Customer Reviews

TaxCut 2004 Deluxe [Old Version]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

This is the last time I will use TaxCut. I bought TaxCut last year because TurboTax cost $10 more and had a lot of bells and whistles I didn't need. I didn't really have any problems with TaxCut last year. This year was a whole different story. It is harder to edit than TurboTax which isn't always easy. I could have done my Federal and State returns manually in far less time.

Initially I wanted to import the data from last year's TaxCut but somehow the file was missing and so was my backup copy. So I tried to import the data from 2002 TurboTax which TaxCut would not do. It had to be a 2003 return. That meant I had to reinvent the wheel and manually reenter all the information which was one reason I use a computer program for, to avoid that tedious repetition.

The first real problem I ran into was when I ran the Final Review, it came up with an error message which prevented me from E-filing and the error message was vague giving no clues as to how to correct it. It involved an itemized deduction which did not make sense because I hadn't itemized deductions. But in looking at the forms list of My Forms, a list of the forms that I had supposedly completed, there was a Schedule A. When I examined the Schedule A I found it had entries for property taxes, charitable contributions, and deductible interest. Where these items came from I don't know because they didn't come from me. Then I tried to delete the Schedule A but I couldn't until I deleted the charitable contributions worksheets. It took me some time to figure that out. Once I did that I was told I could file a 1040A form.

Then I did the California State taxes which went smoothly until I tried to enter the estimated taxes I had paid to the State. There was no place under the State Interview to do that and if those payments were not entered I was faced with paying a penalty. I went to a live chat with TaxCut and was told they had to be entered on the Federal forms which I did and that corrected the problem. However, now I had a Schedule A with the Federal form and could not file a 1040A.

Printing completed forms was wasteful. Many pages had no information on them. I wanted to print only the pages that had information on them and I want to duplex print them but when I hit the Print button it gave me no choices. It printed out every thing on one side of the paper.

My biggest gripe however, was with the E-filing. I have an EFTPS service with the IRS which allows me just to type in my EFTPS Number which allows the IRS to deduct any payments from my bank. But TaxCut is not set up for this and makes the user go through a tedious process of entering and re-entering all the bank information not only on the Federal Return but also on the State return.

Worst of all, TaxCut has the gall to charge for E-filing when both the IRS and the State do not. Earlier this year both TaxCut and TurboTax announced that they would no longer charge for E-filing but apparently that was phony.

Lastly, when I wanted to calculate my estimated taxes, the process was tedious. TaxCut does not assume that your income will virtually the same and requires that the user fill in all the blanks instead of posting the figures and then allowing the user to change them if needed. And there was no interview in the State program for estimated taxes. I had a lot of trouble finding out how to do it and then when I printed out the forms, it printed one small quarterly form on a sheet rather than putting them all on one sheet of paper. No wonder we cut down so many trees.

I've used Turbo Tax in the past and the last two years I used Tax Cut...cheaper and it seemed okay.

My taxes aren't really complicated, but I like the value with the rebates and it's nice and neat and backed-up my computer.

I got Tax Cut Deluxe again and the state program for Wisconsin.

I could not get my state paperwork printed without a big "this is a draft only " notice plastered across it. I finally contacted the online chat at Tax Cut and had to uninstall my Tax Cut programs and download the updates (that I thought I had already downloaded) and reloaded my Tax Cut software and do this and that to my computer which did fix (after alot of work) my State update problems so I could print out finalized forms but now my computer has four error messages on it everytime I start up into my Windows program...never had that before. I was going to go back to the chat line about that mess when I found yet ANOTHER problem.

I noticed earlier at one point that my final refund amounts on my federal changed while I was simply perusing my forms after I was finished and I got suspicious. I hadn't changed any figures during this time. So I was ready to file my taxes and I picked up a hard copy of the federal 1040 instruction booklet.

I compared my line 43 amount on the Tax Cut prepared form to what I would have manually filled in if I had done my own taxes using the 1040 booklet. The 1040 booklet amount is 24 dollars more (more taxes I should pay) than what tax cut calculated according to my adjusted income on line 42.

What the? So I got back onto the chat service today and inquired as to why their calculations for line 43 were different than the amount on the tax tables in the booklet. I was baffled, not only were they different, but the amount that tax cut figured wasn't listed anywhere in the tax tables that I could see.

The service rep wasn't very helpful...I reminded him that the tax cut program, not I, had filled in line 43 on the federal form.

He questioned the info that I had entered during my interview. I reminded him that the amount of tax on line 43 is calculated by whatever is on line 42 (a correct adjusted gross income, I checked it out) so it shouldn't matter how that number came about.

He did some calculations on his end and using my taxable income, he got the correct tax as listed in the 1040 booklet, the amount that I was NOT getting on my tax cut calculations.

The last comment he made was, "I see what you mean" and then I heard nothing more from him. I hadn't been disconnected from what I could see, I kept inquiring as to what was going on, was he checking this out, was he still there, after four minutes of dead silence (and total forty minutes of being on line with him) I disconnected. I am very, very very unhappy about this poor service.

I will NEVER buy this product again. I would have saved myself several hours or work if I had done this the old fashioned way.

What a nightmare!

And here's why ..

--> I originally did an Itemized Deduction and since the Standard Deduction is higher, I chose Standard. On the forms, Itemized Deduction was printed. I went back to the screen and it still says Standard Deduction.

--> The software says that I have an underpayment on the first review. So I go back and do the review again (didn't change anything) .. and the underpayment warning went away. Now I'm confused on whether I really have an underpayment.

--> I elected not to display my phone number on the forms and it's still printed on the forms.

--> I have a long first name. The software won't allow you to put in more than 10 characters in the first name field.

--> The NJ state forms are printed with characters on top of each other and not readable. Since IRS will be scanning these forms, I am not sure how long I will have to wait for TaxCut to correct the format.

--> On the boxes where it display Refund or Owe amount for Fed and State, the amounts are so far off the screen that you can't even see it. Example: instead of displaying "Refund: XXX.XX" , it's displaying "Refund:..........................................XXX.XX"

--> There are typos on the interviews. I see questions like "Did you ...... form New York" It should be FROM New York.

--> On the screen, the "Delete" button is on top of the "Back" button. If I want to go back, I'll have to click on the tabs on top.

I bought the TaxCut Deluxe and also bought state version for NY and NJ. I have been doing my own taxes for many years using TurboTax and thought I'd give TaxCut a try. Needless to say, I will be buying TurboTax again this year and take a lost on this TaxCut.

A new addition to this year's version (when filing electronically), allows H&R Block's bank (HSBC Bank) to check your social security number with other select banks to see if you have defaulted on any loans. If you are due for a refund, they will use the refund to pay off the debt and give you the balance. I didn't see any problem with this since I have not defaulted on anything in my life. However, Bank One advised HSBC that there was an overdue loan (from 1992!) with my social security number. Since the loan did not have my name or address, Bank One's response was that it must be identity theft (I believe Bank One made a data entry error - God knows they probably can't locate the paperwork for a loan that's 13 years old). In order to prove the loan is not mine, I had to send Bank One my social security card, birth certificate, marriage certificate, tax return, and a letter from the Social Security Administration. I had to put out a fraud alert with the Social Security Administration and the 3 credit bureaus. In addition, I had to file a report with the Federal Trade Commission and the police. I am still waiting for Bank One to correct their records so I can get my refund back! Next step - lawyer!
If you must use Tax Cut - DO NOT FILE ELECTRONICALLY! Print your return and mail it in!

I've been using TaxCut Deluxe since the 2002 tax year but 2004 will be my last TaxCut year. Next year, I'm switching back to TurboTax.

The 2004 version has lots of bugs and the software has several mistakes that will mess up your tax refund.
When printing my state return (MN) the program sends an erroneous command to the printer that caused it to lock up after the first page. I had to get the Adobe version on the MN forms and fill them in by hand so they could be printed. Also, the software keeps asking you to update when you've already updated and there's no new update available. You have to select "Update Later" to get around this bug. Very annoying!

This is also my first year e-filing, and it will be my last. I was lured into e-filing by the $15.95 e-filing rebate that TaxCut offered. But my rebate was denied because the rebate form only has 13 spaces for the DCN number and my DCN number has 15 characters. How convenient for them. They sent my rebate form back stating "The DCN number that you submitted is incorrect". The rebate is a scam and I probably won't get the rebate back for my state edition either.

If you're thinking about buying TaxCut 2004 Deluxe, don't do it. Get TurboTax instead. TaxCut is not worth the money or the grief.

I have used Turbo Tax in the past (and will in the future), but thought I would kill two birds with one stone by getting Microsoft Money with their offer.

First, Tax Cut isn't as thorough (e.g. doesn't prompt me to fill out form 8283 for Noncash Charitable Contributions even though I need to) or helpful (we live in state with no income tax so the calculation for sales tax is advantageous - they don't have a link to the IRS website to the tables that I need to use).

More importantly, when I ran the final review, there are four errors that require software updates in order to be resolved. After several failed attempts to update, I went to their website, searched for a fix and, finding none, used the chat feature for support. The guy told me to download the update directly from their website (why they didn't have that anywhere on their FAQs or problem listings, I don't know), and contact them if I continue to have problems. Surprise - when I tried to install the update, I received an error message telling me that I don't have Tax Cut installed on this computer. So I'm back online with the chat folks hoping for a resolution.

Let's hope this goes better than my problems with DeductionPro (see my dismal review of that software for more info). In that case, I wound up returning it for the Turbo Tax version (Its Deductible - which worked perfectly). I may wind up ditching Tax Cut for Turbo Tax and starting over. ARG!

I used this last year and found it to be a reasonably good tool. This year is another story. I have just returned it to Amazon. Here are some problems with it:
- Buttons overlap on the screen
- Amounts do not appear in their fields in their entirety. So a $5,000 amount may look like: "$5,0"
- Lists of items (such as a list of your dependents, a list of forms you have filled, etc) are EMPTY. To find the items in there you have to search the forms!
-Not all forms are there. I never managed to find form 5498 (IRA contributions)
- Advice appears wrong to me. It told my wife that she could have only contributed up to $0 (zero) dollars in her Roth IRA and that she should withdraw her contributions by April 15th to avoid penalties. I checked and it appears that in reality she could contribute up to $3000.
- After answering in the negative if I had paid for my own move to a new home, it continued asking me if I paid in 2004 or 2005.

I am sorry I spent about 4 hours on this nonsensical, amateurish, terribly made piece of junk!

This is my third year of using Tax Cut. While it does get the job done for me, I continue to be amazed at the amateurish programming. Textboxes overlap labels, text is not formatted to fit on the form, controls are not aligned, and on and on. It appears this was a high school project for introduction to programming. While the input forms are laughable, somehow, the results have been correct and the IRS accepted the filing. TurboTax is obviously done by professional programmers but often has technical problems. The amazing thing is that these big companies cannot create a decent tax program after many years of trying. I think if either of these companies started listening to customers, they would learn a great deal and might produce a much better product. The only recommendation I can give is to do your taxes by hand.

What terrible customer service! Here's a brief description of what happened to me.

TaxCut said the State of Maryland would deduct my taxes owed from my SAVINGS account - then, around the middle of MAY - I get a letter from the state saying they only deduct from CHECKING accounts - along with a fine and penalty. So, I look and that fact is on their web site! Silly me - I trusted TaxCut. When I present this in a claim to the company they reply that it's not a processing error or an arithmetic error, so my claim is denied. How odd. Even a simple man like me can see that, in fact that's not even the issue! It's a FACTUAL error, an INFORMATIONAL error. DID ANYONE THERE BOTHER TO READ MY CLAIM? Any company that treats its customers that way will certainly not get any more of my business.

I have been using taxcut for 6 years. This year it dropped one of my deductions. The child was listed in the interview and appeared to be included, but was not submitted in the e-filing. This is pathetic. NEVER USE THIS PRODUCT.