Customer Reviews

TaxCut 2005 Standard [Old Version]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I switched from TurboTax 3 years ago. The main reason being the issues with spyware in the PC version of that program. I also didn't like all of the hoops they were trying to make their customers jump through.

Using TaxCut was a decent experience. The program itself is easy to use and negotiate. Jumping back and forth in the return was a fairly simple process. There were significant improvements over the previous year's version. Which is always a welcome thing.

I was able to quickly import my tax info from the previous year's TurboTax files without any problem. It is also easy to import last year's TaxCut data (just in case you were wondering). The user interface is easily understandable. Overall, TaxCut seems to be a step or two behind TurboTax. But the end results are the same, a tax refund which more than pays for the program. And those steps behind are small steps.

(...)

BE WARNED: TaxCut customer service is painfully bad.

I believe Taxcut is a poorly written program because it requires the individual to make the calculations (or enlist the aid of H&R Block), rather than enable the computer to make the calculations.

I volunteer to do taxes as a part of an AARP program every year. Part of my qualifications involves filling out practice tax returns. One of my practice tax returns involved an individual with a pension 1099R which she had paid into. These type of pensions require that I subtract a portion of her pension based on how long she had received her pension, her age, and other factors. Part of her pension would be taxed and part of it wouldn't. All the information I needed was provided. When I got to this portion of the tax, Taxcut stated that I need to figure the taxable amount and then it referred me to various IRS publications. I believe this should have been part of the program.

I had the experience of the installation hanging at 21%. The file that it hangs on is a ShockWave Flash file. The ShockWave Flash Player needs to be installed on your system. It can be downloaded for free from http://sdc.shockwave.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi

Taxcut is a wonderful program, taking the most of the pain out of doing taxes, and is far less expensive than TurboTax. In an interview setting, the program asks you a series of questions and guides you through the tax process. By far, the greatest amount of time you will spend will most likely be spent assorting your records. This truly makes tax season painless (if not close to it) and also carries the imprimatur of H&R Block and is backed by them for peace of mind.

What makes Taxcut especially nice is that I am able to import any and all taxable transactions into it directly from Microsoft Money.

A note and a personal opinion. Taxcut standard is fantastic, but I honestly do not see why people would pay 100% more for the state edition added on, when state taxes by and large are much less cumbersome than federal taxes.

Discolosure: I have Macromedia Shockwave installed on my XP SP2 system so did not get the hang upon installation others here have gotten.

Purchased this edition of TaxCut last week. On WIN XP2 the software installed cleanly and it downloaded the updates without any issues. I imported last year's data in less than a minute and I had my return completed in less than 1 hour. This includes capital gains/losses, dividends, and AMT calculations. It doesn't get much easier than this.
Yes, you have to download updates. The IRS is still making changes to the tax codes long after this software has to be packaged and sent to the stores. The alternative would be to download the whole package online when you buy it, but wouldn't that take at least as long?

The software seized up and can't be closed when you tried to do the update - same thing if you tried to register.
The program won't do capital gains and loses. I sold some mutual fund and it won't let me enter the capital loss.
You can't complete your tax return unless you get the update.
Going to their website didn't help either. Their link doesn't send you to a working page so you can't download the update.
So you're stuk. Since my tax return is so simple, I'm gonna check around and see what other software is available.

I found this on the HR Block website for the problem when trying to install the software with Win XP

http://answer.taxcut.com/index.cfm?svc=152&DocFile=http://www.kb.techknow-how.com/exports/partner_data/30/html/30-234883230.html

IF that link does not work just search hrblock.com under customer support, fixing errors, hangs and crashes, While installing TaxCut, the process stops part way through the installation. Follow the instructions.

Does your taxes easily. No extra fluff is needed here. Taxcut standard and money software for free. How could you go wrong.

This hang happened everytime I tried to install the program. I went to Taxcut.com for customer support and they had a link that said the problem was with fonts used on the program. They gave me a patch that did nothing. The problem still happened. So I read the reviews on this site and one person had the very correct idea of installing or updating your shock wave flash player. After thinking about it, this made perfect sense, look at the extension that hangs: swf. This worked perfectly. Thank you to that person. But why on earth would taxcut try to give people a font patch that doesn't even solve the real problem. Don't bother with that patch and just update your flash player.

I bought this hoping to do my taxes in January, but regret making the purchase. The bugs and annoyances with the software make it non-functional in many respects and a waste of time to try to correct. I'll try to enumerate my qualms below, which should tell my story:

1. The software is incomplete out of the box. You won't be able to complete your return until after you download updates (it appears they were in a rush to get the software to market before tax time and the product's completion).
2. The option to update is on what seems like every other screen, and the fact that you have to choose "update later" to move on (even after you just updated) makes the user interface pretty clunky and counter-intuitive. This may be a minor gripe, but it all adds up.
3. You are hounded several times throughout the process to upgrade or buy extra services. Why does software I purchase try to sell me more software?!?
4. One of the up-sells is actually the opportunity to e-file (which you can do for free elsewhere). The federal and state e-file cost you $15 apiece, so be ready to fork out another $30 on top of the purchase price, or print your forms and snail mail them.
5. The forms don't actually print correctly if you want to mail them. There are missing sections of single pages on both the federal and state forms which means you either have to give H&R Block another $30 to e-file as a reward for their buggy software, or seek tech support.
6. Tech support may as well not exist. I called 4 times total, usually hanging up because of hold times. On my forth call, I decided to wait it out and discovered that they had me wait on hold for literally an hour before someone answered. Their timing was pretty perfect, though, because the hold time was just long enough for my cordless phone to run out of battery power and hang up, leaving me without a solution to my problem, and little desire to wait on hold again.

I urge you not to buy this software! Go for TurboTax instead.