[OLD VERSION] H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Premium Federal + State + e-file

3.1 | 343 ratings

Price: 9.99

Last update: 07-19-2024

About this item

TaxCut includes up to 5 free federal e files and H&R Block expertise in every version
Get extra assistance and money saving advice to maximize deductions; plus, turn your donations into big tax savings with the included DeductionPro
Receive live tax advice from an H&R Block tax professional via one on one phone or e mail consultation
Save time and reduce the chance for error by quickly and easily importing last year's tax and financial data from TaxCut, TurboTax, Quicken, Microsoft Money, and H&R Block DeductionPro software, as applicable
In the event of an audit, receive personal assistance from an IRS licensed Enrolled Agent with audit representation expertise not a self serve Web site or FAQ page

Top reviews from the United States

NoName

It can't print PDF files correctly, Uses shareware for driver.

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2009

I just returned my copy of TaxCut. Good thing they have a 60 day refund policy.

When I saved my returns to an Adobe PDF file (see review below about the shareware utility they use), all of the worksheets were unreadable. The width of the worksheet content seemed to be set for about half the page width, which caused page overflow. Margins at the top cut off content. Not at all usable. The IRS forms were fine, so it's not me.

I'm using a wide-screen display, maybe they took the display size and scaled it. Don't know. Don't care. I have a problem and have no way to fix it. TaxCut needs to test their software better. Back to TurboTax.

========== Earlier review=======================
Everything was going OK until I tried to print the return to a PDF file. Without my permission or knowledge, TaxCut installed a program called "pdf995". It's used to create PDF files. If you don't print to PDF files, the software is not installed.

Run the separate program, installed as Software995 in your Program list. There are ads. There are IE windows with ads - it launches IE without my permission.

The add/remove programs lists it as "Pdf995 (Installed by Tax Cut)". Like that makes it OK. It's not even a licensed version, it's the shareware version. They should have just installed the driver and left the software out.

This little gem is going to reinstall itself if I run TaxCut and check for updates, without me knowing about it. I'll also have to manually uninstall it after I'm done with TaxCut.

To be clear, this is not spyware or a virus. The correct term is "crapware" (stuff installed without your permission that does nothing but sell you products).

Ali Julia

I prefer TaxCut when compared to TurboTax

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2011

I've used TaxCut every year since 1995. Several times when I saw a promotional deal I purchased both TaxCut and TurboTax to compare. I found that TurboTax did not do anything better than TaxCut while costing consistently more.

TaxCut software also wins if compared to the free on-line options. I don't like using the on-line tax programs for two reasons (1) I don't want my financial data to be on someone's web site (2) free offers include the Federal tax only.

H&R Block tax software does a good job despite having a few flaws, my two pain complaints:

1. Some forms (such foreign tax credit over the limit to be directly on 1040) require entering data manually. For some reason the software does not do this form automatically. This form is not that hard to do manually as this form does not change year to year.

2. Copy and Paste from Interview screens is not possible. Sometimes I wish to do it for some issue as a reminder to myself. My solution is to do PrintScreen (holding ctl key, shift key, and printscreen key at the same time). This generates an image of the screen, which I paste into paint or photo editing sofware which I can print or save for later.

In addition to tax software, the package includes DeductionPro software. I find it helpful in organizing and valuating charity donations, such as clothing and household items.

However, despite a few flaws I still recommend this software package. The interview process is helpful in reminding you things you might have forgotten. On-line help is useful. Despite a few annoyances, it does a good job.

CSX

good tax program, meets the needs so far

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2008

UPDATE 1/24/09:

I am still very satisfied with this product. So far I've entered all my data, and it's been pretty painless, both for Fed & State taxes.

I have to qualify this by saying that my taxes are pretty simple this year, with no AMT, no sch C, no sch K, etc. So I'm not really running into some areas that are often not handled well in tax software.

One thing I liked better than turbo tax was the simpler handling of tax-exempt income, splitting the in-state vs. out-of-state portions. Also, similarly, the handling of US Treasury interest (tax-exempt for state tax). Turbo Tax makes you enter separate 1099s for each part, instead of just capturing the information within one form dialog.

On the other side, I have some additional critiques:
(1) no ability to import/download W2 & 1099 data (not that I found, anyway)
(2) form 1116 has to be filled out manually, even if it's pretty straightforward -- they could have and should have provided an interview for this
(3) no way provided to simply delete a line in a form (minor point, turbo tax has this, and I find it very useful) -- you can of course delete the data in the line

INITIAL REPORT:

Obviously, it's a bit too early to provide a thorough review of the program, because it's essentially incomplete (as is TurboTax): many tax forms are still not available in their final form. There will be a Dec 11 update, and I expect several others over the next couple of months. (I've learned from past experience not to submit final returns until late March, since the bug fixes and form corrections are often not final until then. This is true for either TurboTax or TaxCut.)

However, here's my current take: this is a fine program, and certainly more than adequate for the necessary help preparing a tax return. I've used TaxCut in the past, but have used TurboTax for the past few years. I decided to use TaxCut this year because of the price difference, and because the new licensing policy for TT is annoying. So far I'm finding it easy to use, and trouble-free in importing data from the previous year TurboTax file and current year TXF files.

One minor weakness compared to TurboTax: I remember that in the 07 TT you could remove a specific set of imported data; I haven't found anything like that in this program. Not a biggie for me, since I always save "checkpoints" in separate files so I can revert to a previous version if I need to, but it's the kind of little thing that makes TT a bit better in my opinion. Just not sufficiently better that I will pay anything Intuit wants to charge (just a matter of principle for me).

Some general comments, based on experience over many years of doing my own (often very complicated) returns: Neither program is perfect by any means. For many complicated situations you have to do your own calculations externally (I use Excel), or enter data manually. Be aware that dealing with AMT, AMT credits, and stuff like that remains mind-bendingly difficult, just not as nightmarish as doing them without a program to help. And you should always sanity check your results, because odd calculation bugs can persist for a long time. (I found a very stupid, but hard to find, calculation bug in TurboTax a few years ago, having to do with AMT.)

I will post an update in a few weeks when I've had the chance to make more progress with my return. Will be able to review the state program as well at that point, perhaps.

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