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By JLP | December 23, 2005

Yesterday, I received a copy of H&R Block’s Tax Cut Deluxe + State on a “try-it-before-you-buy-it” basis. If I like it, I pay $29.95. I don’t normally buy the Deluxe version because I have never really needed it. The reason I am considering this deal is that is comes with the following:

One FREE e-filing after main-in-rebate ($15.95 value) - Why they charge to do an e-file I’ll never know. Who buys software so that they can MAIL in a return. I think that’s the “gotcha” with tax prep software programs. I hate being bilked.
FREE Microsoft Money 2006 Standard after mail-in-rebate ($29.95 value)
$10 mail-in rebate on H&R Block DeductionPro software - I probably wouldn’t use this.
$20 mail-in rebate on Kiplinger’s Complete LegalPro software with qualifying TaxCut purchase - I probably wouldn’t use this either.

I have used TaxCut for a number of years now and have always been happy with it. But, I will probably wait until I see the software on sale in the stores to see which deal is the best. I don’t want to pay for something I don’t need. I will say that these companies have done an amazing job at making it hard to figure out which is the best deal. You think they planned it like that?

Topics: Tax Planning, Taxes |

Comments to “Tax Cut”

FMF Says:
December 23rd, 2005 at 10:10 am

Hey, they should be giving you a FREE copy in exchange for a great mention (if you like it) on this blog.

srh Says:
December 23rd, 2005 at 11:33 am

I’m one of those who buys tax prep software, then mails in the return. If I don’t have to pay money to mail a return, I can’t figure out why I should have to pay money to e-file. It should be easier, faster, and cheaper for everyone involved.

And although the e-filing is usually “free” after a rebate, I don’t like waiting for the rebate which may or may not come, and I don’t like to be a part of this ridiculous precedent of paying money for the privilege of filing my taxes.

jim Says:
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:42 pm

E-filing is better than mailing for you because you’re guaranteed your return won’t get lost in the mail and it will get processed faster, which is why they want you to pay for that benefit. They shouldn’t though because the long-term savings for every citizen would be greater. It’s weird and yes, ridiculous.

Jeremy Says:
December 24th, 2005 at 9:28 pm

Remember that the IRS isn’t charging you to e-file, it’s H&R Block. While e-filing is good for the taxpayer adn the IRS, H&R or Intuit don’t benefit except for the payment (or by encouraging some fence-sitters to buy the software.) That said, I think $16 to send a file over their secure network is ridiculously steep.

I usually print mine out and mail it because I want it to take longer (I usually owe money.)

Flexo Says:
December 27th, 2005 at 10:59 am

I only e-file if I can find an “offer code” to do it for free, whcih I’ve been able to do
with TurboTax online. Otherwise, I’ll just print it out and mail the form… although if
I remember correctly, TurboTax will still charge you to print out the completed forms if
you don’t have an offer code.

» Personal in Personal Finance by Blueprint for Financial Prosperity Says:
December 29th, 2005 at 7:09 pm

[...] JLP of AllThingsFinancial discusses a nice offer he received from TaxCut and his experiences with the product. [...]

jim Says:
December 29th, 2005 at 7:12 pm

I’ve used TurboTax a few times and never had to pay to print out completed forms… when did they start doing that? That’s a ridiculous policy considering you’re paying for the software already.

Flexo Says:
December 29th, 2005 at 7:50 pm

Ah, my comment was unclear. I used TurboTax Online, which is a separate product from TurboTax.

Tim Says:
January 26th, 2006 at 9:49 am

I’m fed up with TaxCut. Last year I needed their Hawaii state program.
I ordered the key to unlock it on my disk and was charged $25. I go to
the disk, and it tells me “Sorry, Hawaii tax forms are not available”.
I had to telephone Hawaii (from the east coast) to get their printed
tax return forms. I wasted hours and hours getting a refund from TaxCut.

This year they sent me disk. I fell for it and ordered their key to unlock
the program. I installed it on my desktop. I also needed to install it on
my laptop, but the key is good for only one install! I’m screwed again!
Once more I wasted hours and hours with tech support trying to get another key.
They won’t help.

I’m through with TaxCut!!

smileywrylygirl Says:
February 8th, 2006 at 10:03 pm

Free e-file:

First of all, if you want to e-file for free, you can do so for the most part if your AGI is $50,000 or less and you are age 50 or under. The trick is that you HAVE to access the tax websites through the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov. I used H&R Block Tax Cut. Go to http://www.irs.gov, then click on “IRS e-file” (blue oval button on the left). On the next page, click on “Free File” underneath “e-file for Individual Taxpayers”. On the next page, click on “Start Now”. Scroll down to “H&R BLOCK’S TAXCUT” and click on it. That’s it. It is totally free at this point. I can’t vouch for the other tax sites on there b/c they all have their own stipulations and such.

LWright Says:
September 15th, 2006 at 11:26 am

I am done with Taxcut!! Their customer service ranks as the worst. I had used the program for years however last year I received a CD in the mail and ordered deluxe+state and then a second state program. During a move I lost the CD. When I called customer service they couldn’t find the order - it seems that there are 3 taxcut companies/departments. one for online, one for CD bought in the store and one for CD’s sent out and none of them can access the information from the ohter one. After hours on the phone I had to pay for everything again because of inaction on customer services part. They can’t find the confirmation codes given to me for the program and even faxing copies of their confirmation e-mail didn’t help.

kirk Says:
February 6th, 2007 at 2:09 am

Taxcut is by far the most buggy software that I’ve ever used. Microsoft can now point to Taxcut as the honorary crappiest software on Windows. This is no joke folks, I just got off the phone with tech support after 53 minutes and their “fix” was to simlpy uninstall and reinstall…. and surprise, the same exception/crash happens again.

Mark Says:
February 7th, 2007 at 2:45 pm

Kirk-
I’m a product manager for TaxCut and want to help. Sorry to hear you had a bad technical support experience and even more sorry to hear you are having issues with installing TaxCut. I’d be happy to have someone contact you to resolve this issue once and for all. Let me know if you’re interested. Mark

David Says:
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:24 pm

I like Taxcut, but I had a puzzler that has baffled tech support. Simply put, you must indicate a rollover as the destination for an IRA distribution in order to avoid taxes on the distribution. TaxCut in the interviw says to attach a note indicating that the distribution was rolled over. However, they cannot tell me how to indicate this in an efile. I am on my 4th support person, including a supervisor, and they cannot seem to give me an answer.

Kent W. Says:
February 25th, 2007 at 6:01 pm

David, I filed with TaxBrain this year and had a great experience. I am a small business owner doing my taxes without a CPA for the first time this year. There was not a single question that stumped the livechat folks I dealt with at TaxBrain. All in all, a very easy experience that makes me wonder what I was paying my CPA for all those years.

efile Says:
August 15th, 2007 at 10:21 pm

I bought 2006 TAXCUT Premium with 1 federal & 1 state efile at no additional charge. I have the key code. When I click on File tab after completing the federal and state returns, there is no option to enter the key code for the free efiling. I just see 2 options - one is to deduct efile fee from refund amount and the second option is by credit card.

Please reply regarding where to enter the key code to get the free efiling.

Jo Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 2:23 am

I just got off the phone earlier with tech support, and got no satisfaction at all. My federal return was rejected, and when I went to the site to find out why, it wouldn’t tell me, just told me I would have to mail my return, after paying for the deluxe package! The technical support person I finally reached said she could help me fix the errors, then re-file the return for me. Sounded great. The first error was too many digits in a zip code, but it really wasn’t, I had entered the correct number. She told me to delete all the w-2 info and re-enter it anyway, then save and quit and sign in again to fix the “error”. Then we tried to go to the next error, a “0″ somewhere that should be deleted, and I guess she just got tired of talking to me, she just said not to worry about it since we didn’t locate it, just do save and quit and sign in again. She then told me I would not be able to re-file, because once the federal return had been rejected, the IRS would not allow me to e-file! This is after she clearly told me I would be able to e-file if we fixed the “errors”, which as far as I could tell were not real errors, but problems with the program. I had a lot of problems and glitches while using the program this year, and felt uncomfortable about filing with it, but double-checked the information myself carefully and did several error checks before submitting it. So now I have wasted my money on a flawed program and am very upset, but she said there was no way I could get a refund even if I did not ever file. I need my refund much sooner than 5-7 weeks, that’s why I e-filed in the first place! This lady was very hard to understand, and I got the impression she didn’t understand me very well either. She did tell me I could file with some other company and the IRS would accept my return, it just wouldn’t accept a return filed through Tax Cut. Makes no sense to me, and I will not be using TaxCut ever again. I have used it and been happy with it for several years, but it just didn’t feel like the same program this year, too many bugs, too hard to correct errors.

Matt Says:
February 28th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

I had a similar experience to Jo. I e-filed my return and within 15 minutes got an email from HRB that my return was rejected (it was vague about who rejected it, I don’t think the IRS rejected it within 15 minutes of filing though). Bringing up the program gave no indication of why or how it could be fixed. I did online chat with a rep that evening, he was very abrupt and not at all helpful. Just kept giving me a code to delete some form that wasn’t in the list. The next day I chatted with a different rep who was much more helpful, we found the form that needed to be deleted (didn’t have any info on it, so it wouldn’t file it). Neither of us could find any way to delete it. He also told me that there was no work around for e-filing a second time, I would have to mail my return. While researching the error I had found that TurboTax is offered free to State Farm customers. I filed my return through TurboTax with zero trouble, and would have saved $45 if I had done it first. I had used TaxCut in years past, but won’t use it again. I second that it was too buggy, too hard to correct errors, and wouldn’t let me e-file a second time even though there is no way the IRS rejected the return in 15 minutes (through TurboTax it took about 9 hours for the IRS to accept the return).

Michael Says:
March 16th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

I used turbotax before with no problems. This year I made the mistake of using Taxcut. I had the same problem with the e-file and got the run around. I would describe taxcut as a waste of money and time. IT TRULY SUCKS.

John Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

I’ve used TaxCut exclusively to e-file for the better part of a decade. I have always found it easy and intuitive. However, this is not the case this year! First it rejected my return and gave me a vague reason, and didn’t take me to the mistake. I only got it corrected after going to irs.gov and reading the instructions for the form myself. Once getting past that, it accepted my return for e-file. A day later, there was a message that my return was rejected. No reason. I tried going to their “live-chat”, which turned out to be a computer, to get an answer. No dice. Their link for help on “Rejected e-file returns” does not work. I live overseas so calling is very inconvenient. So, for the first time in almost ten years, I am mailing a hard copy of a return. It’s TurboTax next year for me!

Susan S Says:
January 29th, 2009 at 11:00 pm

It looks like 2008 Tax Cut Software is doing the same thing this year. I tried to e-file the return several times after fixing errors” and the IRS is still rejecting the file. The website is still no help in terms of customer service. Looks like TaxCUT has done it again. This is the 5th year I have used this software. I even tried to e-file for free on the TaxCut website and it said I could not file it because the IRS was still updating forms in the middle of February 2009. What is going on?? Looks like I may be going to Turbo Tax next year.

Brian H. Says:
February 4th, 2009 at 1:34 pm

I am having a similar problem. The software does not find any errors with my returns, but when I attempt to efile it tells me there is some sort of error and to hit next and try again or try again later. I have used two different computers so it is a software issue. Tech support could not help. I have use Turbo tax in the past with great success. I really wish I would have continued to do so. The only reason I use the software is so I don’t have to mail in the form.

Gayle Says:
February 8th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

Guys,

I just bought Taxcut Standard for 09 from our local dollar store. This is not a ‘try it’ disk and all about the sleve seems legit. Has anyone had problems with cutrate Taxcut?

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