My experience with the software started out well enough - the program installed and started up easily and began with the usual questions of name, SSN, contents of the various boxes of the W2, etc. As time went on, however, it became apparent that the product was slapped together hastily and rushed out the door so as to start making money for the manufacturer as quickly as possible. How else to explain this screen I came across?
"Special Case Applies for 1040, Line 10. Your tax situation is a special case. To figure the amount for Form 1040, line 10 see the recoveries section of IRS Publication 525: Taxable and Nontaxable Income. Tell us the amount you figured for line 10."
The whole purpose of buying the software is to keep me from having to read IRS publications and figure out what to put in the various lines and boxes... the software is supposed to tell me that! Even worse, my "special case" was not all that special - I had a state income tax refund last year and also paid AMT last year. At any rate, I dutifully read Publication 525 and, after about an hour, figured out what was supposed to go into line 10; something that turned out to be easily programmable if the manufacturers could be troubled to do so.
I continued onward and later was flummoxed by the question, "Is Rent Amount for this Rentals and Royalties Worksheet? [Yes/No]" I still, to this day, don't know what was actually meant by this question - I ended up having to figure out the answer by putting "Yes" and seeing what the program did with the tax forms and then by putting "No" and seeing what that did. To the best of my knowledge (after another hour or two of study), "No" proved to be the correct answer but I am sure the IRS will set me straight if I've gotten it wrong... many years ago I had gone to an H&R Block brick and mortar establishment and had them fill out my taxes. A couple of months later, I got a very politely written letter from the IRS explaining that I had figured my taxes incorrectly and sent them too much money. To save me some time, they were just going to assume that I redid my taxes according to what they figured for me and they just went ahead and sent me a check for the amount that I overpaid.
Anyway, I pressed onward through the program, answering questions such as "Tell us on which copy of your worksheet you want to report your rents" via trial and error (0 resulted in an error but the program seemed happy with 1) until I got to the end and filed the taxes electronically.
Incidentally, electronically filing with the IRS is free but electronically filing with a state costs $19.95 extra...
After I filed, I reviewed the forms that were printed out for my records only to discover (even with my rudimentary tax knowledge) that the program had entered double the proper number for the rents that I had collected. Turns out that the program had asked me for the rents I'd collected twice but the second time it was asking me for ADDITIONAL rents collected that I had not told it about on the first screen. Naively, I entered the same figure on both screens when I was supposed to enter the proper figure on the first screen and zero on the second screen. The mistake ended up resulting in me being charged about $7000 additional tax so naturally a refile was in order.
Unfortunately, the IRS does not accept electronic refiles and H&R has apparently never tested the refile portion of their program on live humans beings so the refiling ended up being even more arduous than the original filing. I think I've got the proper forms printed out now but, again, I'm sure the nice folks at the IRS will let me know if I haven't got it all straight.
At any rate, I won't be using this product for the next tax season; instead I'll go with something less painful such as sawing at my wrists with a rusted razor blade in hopes that I bleed to death prior to April 15th.
H&R Block Tax Software Premium 2015 Federal & State
3 | 74 ratings
Price: 29.99
Last update: 08-15-2024
About this item
Quickly and easily imports your W-2, 1099 and last year's return
Step-by-step Q&A guides you through your return
Five free federal e-files included
Prepare and print unlimited federal returns for free
Accuracy Review checks for any issues and your audit risk
Step-by-step Q&A guides you through your return
Five free federal e-files included
Prepare and print unlimited federal returns for free
Accuracy Review checks for any issues and your audit risk
Top reviews from the United States
Doxycycline
Accomplished the seemingly impossible - made filing taxes EVEN MORE painful!
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2016Douglas A. Feldman
An Excellent Way of Doing Your Taxes
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2017Donald W. Hohensee
It worked well for me. I was able to ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2016Debra Sims
For 2015 tax year. 2015! Why?
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2024Robert E.
It used to be that HR Block was better than Turbo Tax
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2016
HDB
Works well except when it doesn't, and is then ...
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2016Paul I.
Can Be Frustrating
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2016Tom B.
Great.
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2016