Prefatory note: Don’t let my below “Foreword” discussing a (temporarily) frustrating “CD-R snafu” unduly scare you away from trying “TaxCut.” It’s entirely possible I would’ve experienced the identical, sporadic, “CD-R drive” problem if I’d instead been using the competing “TurboTax” product.
Foreword (feel free to skip ahead):
Not only this year but also for the past few years, I’ve used H&R; Block’s “TaxCut” software to “do” my federal and state income tax returns. I’d likewise used TaxCut’s chief competitor, TurboTax, once or twice several years ago. Perhaps I felt that TurboTax, which generally costs about five dollars more than TaxCut, contained still more “bells and whistles” (e.g., its multimedia “movies” about general topics are somewhat larger and flashier) than does TaxCut. But, frankly, I myself had never gotten any significant use out of viewing those “nice-but-superfluous” (eminently skippable) movies; and I didn’t feel that any of the other modest enhancements (that TurboTax provided but which TaxCut didn’t) had given me sufficient reason to pay five bucks extra for TurboTax.
Consequently, as of a few years ago, I’d become one of TaxCut’s repeat customers. And I’d never had any problems whatsoever using TaxCut until this year (spring 2008). For reasons still not entirely clear to me, this year’s edition of “TaxCut Premium Federal and State” gave me major headaches whenever I “saved” my tax return (not to the hard drive but instead) to a removable, rewritable CD-R disc and subsequently attempted to retrieve that “successfully saved” file. Last year (as well as the year before that), I’d had absolutely NO trouble using the “2006” (or earlier) edition(s) of TaxCut to save my tax returns onto the very same media and then subsequently retrieve them. But this year–regardless of which of my desktop PC’s two CD drives I tried using–some of the time Taxcut would display the following onscreen, popup error message:
“The return you have selected cannot be loaded due to the following errot: File Header Block not located. Not a Taxcut data file. You should update the program and try and again….”
However, when I duly tried “updating” the program, I merely get a message saying that my Taxcut software was already up to date.
As you can guess, this unforeseen snafu caused me to lose all my tax-return data that I’d patiently input. In other words, I was forced to begin doing my tax return all over again, from scratch! [This wouldn’t have happened if I’d been saving my tax-return file to the computer’s internal, hard drive (instead of to a CD-R).]
I did double-check that the particular CD-R that I was using worked fine with other files (than my TaxCut return) and other software (than TaxCut). And I double-checked the CD-R’s “properties”, etc., to verify that my computer was otherwise having no trouble reading the disk and displaying its general information. However, Windows’ “My Computer” reported that the supposedly successfully saved TaxCut return file was actually an “empty” (“zero-kilobytes”) file.
Mind, this snafu didn’t consistently occur. Moreover, I do realize that the problem might involve my computer’s own particular CD drives (perhaps they’re getting “long in the tooth”?) and/or my particular CD-R media); however, that seems unlikely given the following two points: (1) what are the odds that both of those CD drives would produce precisely the same bad results all of the sudden; and (2) why do both of those drives (as well as my CD-R media) continue to work consistently whenever I use them in conjunction with other software than this latest edition of Taxcut?
In any case, once I gave up consistently trying to save my TaxCut return to such removable media and, instead, began to accept the program’s default option–which is to save to the computer’s hard drive–everything worked consistently, and I was able to get on with the business of finishing my return using TaxCut. After I’d successfully used TaxCut to e-file both my federal and state returns, I promptly deleted my tax-return file from my computer’s hard drive, and I successively saved it to a couple of removable CD-Rs. (Most likely, next year’s TaxCut–or TurboTax?–edition will have no problem retrieving from at least one of those saved files from one of those discs.) And, very possibly, even this year’s edition of TaxCut is perfectly all right (the root cause of my hassles might have been my own system/hardware–my “Windows XP” PC is now about two and a half years old).
TaxCut “Premium Federal + State” (for tax year 2007):
First, let me say that I’m a soul who, all my life, detested the very thought of grappling with tax-return data and filling out the old-fashioned federal and state documents. Indeed, I’d long refused to do it myself. Instead, I’d always grudgingly paid an H&R; Block office (or some less famous service) to handle the job for me. It wasn’t until the mid 1990’s that–with some apprehension–I bought one of these “do-it-yourself” (“DIY”) software products and assayed the task right at home. To my surprise, the software made the entire “DIY” concept suddenly tolerable–if not fully palatable–to my sensibilities. Only in two subsequent tax years (when I had to deal with not only my own but also a late parent’s taxes) did I again avail myself of “professional” (instead of “DIY”) help via an H&R; Block office, and each of those costly occasions only further convinced me that the “DIY” (at-home software) alternative is fully as effective for my basic purposes.
In past years I’ve tried three different brands of tax-return software products, including the long-defunct Parson’s “Tax Edge”; Intuit’s “TurboTax”; and (the subject of this review) H&R; Block’s “TaxCut”. I always derived “satisfactory” results from all those products; however, the more recent editions virtually always entailed fewer (if any) frustrating quirks. I’d become quite satisfied with using “TurboTax” until a few years ago when I noticed that H&R;’s competing product was consistently at least five dollars cheaper (and sometimes offered better “freebies” and/or rebates). Although TaxCut’s “Premium” edition generally is somewhat less flashy than the “TurboTax” counterpart (e.g., there are fewer intermittent “movie clips” available for optional viewing), the bottom line was that any such “bells and whistles” didn’t enhance the overall ease with which I could prepare my federal and state tax returns; in fact, those sporadic “detours”, more often than not, seemed merely a time-wasting distraction to me. Consequently, I stopped paying extra for TurboTax and regularly opted for TaxCut.
The basic TaxCut “DIY” experience:
You can either purchase TaxCut as a downloadable product directly from H&R; Block (taxcut.com), or (as I did) you can go buy a CD-ROM version of it at a local bricks-and-mortar retailer (Office Depot, in my case). [NOTE: There’s also a version of TaxCut allowing you to do your taxes entirely “online” (storing your tax information on H&R;’s own servers); but I myself haven’t used that version.]
After inserting the TaxCut CD-ROM disc into your computer’s drive, you’ll soon be be presented with the “Welcome to TaxCut” screen, offering you the following three options: (1) Start a Tax Return; (2) Update TaxCut; or (3) File an Extension.
If you’re capable of reading and following, say, freeway or street signs without getting hopelessly lost, then you should have no trouble following TaxCut’s basic “question-and-answer” prompts and clicking the appropriate onscreen buttons. [Besides, unlike driving on the freeway, navigating TaxCut’s friendly user interface is a highly forgiving experience: you can always retrace your steps by clicking the “Back” button located at the lower-left of the screen; conversely, there’s a handy “Next” button at the lower-right of the screen.]
TaxCut’s user interface is admirably uncluttered and easy to understand at a glance. Along with the several typical, tiny, “dropdown-menu” options ranged along the very top of the screen (i.e., “File;” “Edit”; “Forms”; “Reports”; “Tools”; and “Help”), the program’s primary panel features five tabs: “Welcome”; “Federal”; “State”; “File”; and “Plan”. When you initially click the “Welcome” tab, you’ll be prompted to enter a “file name” for your tax return. To save your file, you can either accept the default target directory (i.e., save your return in your hard drive’s “My Documents” folder) or you can click “Browse” to save to a different folder or drive.
“Updating” a non-downloadable version of tax-software is basically obligatory, and so you might as well get it out of the way right before proceeding further. Just be sure you’re connected to the Internet, and then click the appropriate button to initiate a download of the latest version of the federal version of TaxCut. (Don’t worry about the federal version–you’ll be prompted to download that later, after you’ve finished doing your federal return; or you can click the “State” tab to download it at any time.) With my DSL Internet connection, the federal “download and installation” of the updated version of TaxCut took me about ten minutes (and the subsequent state download was accomplished in a mere minute or so).
Now you’re ready to click the program’s “Start a Tax Return” button and begin typing and entering your “Personal Information” into the indicated fields (boxes), starting with the most basic stuff, your name, address, etc. Better still, assuming you’ve previously saved such relevant data in a prior edition of TaxCut (not to mention TurboTax, Quicken, Microsoft Money, or DeductionPro), TaxCut can easily and quickly “import” such pertinent data from that other saved file. This saves you typing and time, and you can do it at any time via the uppermost “File” (dropdown) menu’s following options: “Import Last Year’s Tax Data”; and “Import Financial Information.
After you’ve got all your most basic “Personal Information” entered, you’ll (as usual) click the ever-present “Next” button. You’ll soon be presented with the option to view a short (approximately 2.5-minute) video featuring female narration summarizing the most basic “2007 Tax Law Changes” you might want to know about. The video is displayed with in popup panel that’s occupied less than a fourth of your monitor’s screen. There’s no “full-screen” option, not that one is really called for. The video content is comparable to a quality “PowerPoint” presentation, not a “live-motion” video featuring the talking heads that were ubiquitous in the TurboTax software that I recall from several years ago (when I last used that competing software product). In any case, I myself seldom, if ever, find any of these videos to be necessary for my relatively simple annual tax return, and I often opt to skip such “bells and whistles” and get on with merely reading and responding to the software’s other, purely textual information and prompts. (It’s easy to know whether you can safely skip viewing any one of the TaxCut’s intermittent “video” presentations, for there’s a brief, textual summary of the video’s topics beneath the button that you’d click to call up and view the video panel.)
As you proceed though TaxCut’s successive, “one-step-at-a-time”, “question-and-answer” screens (you’ll be continually clicking that lower-right “Next” button!), you’ll occasionally notice that a tiny box pops up notifying you that your return (whose file name you previously specified) is being saved. Via the aforementioned “File (dropdown) menu, you can always modify this situation by clicking the “autosave” option and then designating (in minutes) just how frequently you want TaxCut to automatically save your return (“10 minutes” is the default). Alternatively, you can “disable” (or “enable”) the the autosave function at any time, in which case you’ll still be prompted to save your return when you exit the program (and you can manually save it at any time simply by pressing “CONTROL+S” or selecting “Save” or “Save as…” on the “File” menu).
The majority of the “question-and-answer” screens will, for most users, seem quickly skippable (via clicking “Next”); however, a high percentage of users will certainly be spending a little time dealing with such general screens (topics) as the following:
“Common Income Items” (e.g., “Income reported on Form W-2”; “State and local income tax refunds”; “Interest income” (e.g., on Form 1099-INT); etc.). TaxCut’s interface makes it easy to add, modify, or delete any given source of income (such as a bank account). You simply click the “Add item” button and follow the subsequent, clearly labeled, onscreen prompts. After a few clicks and a modicum of typing and entering data, you’ll be ready to click the “Finished” button to proceed beyond the “Common Income Items” section of the program.
“Investment Income” (e.g., “Dividends and capital gain distributions”; “Sale of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or other property”; etc. Again, there’s a handy “Add item” button for enter each respective “Payer”, etc; and when you’re done with the entire “Investment Income” section, you’ll click the “Finished” button to proceed. [NOTE: After you click this section’s “Finish” button, don’t overlook the subsequently displayed screen, “Capital Loss Carryover.” If, in a previous tax year, you sold stock, bonds, mutual funds (or whatever) at a loss; and if the amount of that loss exceeded what you were able to deduct in that previous tax year, you’re now entitled to deduct still more (e.g., up to $3000) from the current tax year’s return. As one of TaxCut’s textual cues rightly states, “This is a deduction many taxpayers overlook”!]
Retirement, Form 1099-R, and Social Security:
Much of this TaxCut section will look and function entirely analogously to the above two sections. You’ll click the “Add item” and “Finished” buttons if/where appropriate.
And then:
Once you complete your entries of all forms of “income”, TaxCut will provide you with a handy “Income Summary” screen showing everything at a glance.
At this point, you might not enjoy glancing at the upper-right part of TaxCut’s primary panel, for that’s where any Federal (not to mention State) “Money you owe” will be prominently displayed. On the other hand, it’s likewise where any “Refund” will be displayed. Of course, you shouldn’t overreact to any “owed” amount if you’ve not yet gotten to the point in the program where you’ll either enter all your itemized deductions OR accept the “standard deduction”; doing either of those things could significantly lower your “owed” amount (if any).
Actually, in my own case, once I’d gotten beyond the above sections of the TaxCut program, I basically breezed through all the remaining sections, merely glancing at each successive screen topic to ascertain whether any of it pertained to my situation. The successive “Adjustments”, “Deductions”, and “Credits” sections took me very little time to cruise through, and, before I knew it, I was prompted to run an “Error Check”, which promptly reported that no mistakes were detected with my various entries.
State:
At that point, it was time to proceed with my State return (whose “update” download required only a minute), which required much less time to complete (because much of my information from the “Federal” section was automatically carried over).
Filing:
Shortly (after being prompted to let the software perform yet another “Error Check”, this time for the “State” section), it was time to “File” both my federal and my state returns. TaxCut made this pretty darned easy. Over the past three or so years, I’ve appreciated the “e-file” option; however, prior to that, I’d used this software to print out a traditional, hardcopy return with no problem (other than the inescapable hassle of so many sheets to print; envelopes to address; etc.). Whether or not it makes good “budgetary” sense for me to pay the extra $15.99 (per return) to file electronically is a moot point. I only know that I’ll likely continue doing it, for it reduces my tax-preparation stress significantly. Not only is there no “snail mail” to hassle with, but also I don’t have to worry about whether my returns will get lost in the mail, or (more likely) mishandled by some harried human IRS employee. [I still recall that regrettable time (back in the eighties) when the IRS (supposedly) “never received” my painstakingly prepared hardcopy return, and I then had to deal with gathering and mailing the whole mess all over again.] 😉
The Upshot:
While TaxCut doesn’t have as quite as many (superfluous) “bells and whistles” (e.g., sizable multimedia-movie panels) as its only major competitor (the somewhat costlier TurboTax), it comes rather close. More to the point, TaxCut is plenty sufficient for my purposes, not to mention those of the “average” citizen. I suggest you read various other reviews of not only TaxCut but also TurboTax; it seems “everybody’s a critic” when it comes to do-it-yourself tax software. Even if you don’t end up preferring TaxCut to the marginally flashier TurboTax, you’ll surely appreciate its modestly lower price.
Then again, perhaps you’d like to save still more money by opting for the increasingly well known, “third” tax-software option, “TaxAct. I myself have never used that (entirely online) product. I don’t yet feel entirely comfortable about having my past returns stored primarily on TaxAct’s servers instead of on my own CD-R (or other removable media). Moreover, some of the customer reviews of TaxAct convey that I’d quickly weary of some of its recurring prompts reminding the user of the “also available”, “not-free” version of TaxAct. But for anybody lacking my compunctions and wanting to “do” his tax return on the cheap, TaxAct could represent a viable option.
