I have always used TurboTax software before. But this year they re-arranged their product offerings and got away with some rebates. If I am not mistaken there is no more $10 mailing rebate and no rebate for electronic filling fee either. Due to these changes to TurboTax, I am willing to give H&R Block TaxCut software a shot. I would appreciate it if someone who had used TaxCut software before would share their experience of the product.
Both TurboTax and TaxCut are easy to use (I think TaxCut usually gets slightly better reviews though). If your taxes really aren't too complicated then try one of the free online tax services (the government has a list of the providers IRS).
You can do federal taxes for free if you make less than $50,000/year (gotta love being a student) and state for pretty cheap (or just fill out state by hand and then it is free).
Even worse, I have not been seeing the sweet deals where you can get a bunch of software for free. It's $50 for my usual, tax cut deluxe and state, get money 2006 free. Nothing in hot deals forum. Guess I'll wait for post-Christmas sales.
BTW, I changed over from turbo tax a while ago, after they bundled spyware, and had no issues converting.
Switching around can be good. Earlier this week I received a package in the mail from TaxCut. I'd used them a while back but had resorted to TurboTax in the last couple of years. Low and behold TaxCut had sent a "Welcome Back" free Deluxe version including State Tax software (including free e-filing), wanting to bring me back to using their software. Nice little value for having switched around, I'd say...
Thanks for the advice. One more question though... can TaxCut import previous year's TurboTax files? I really liked this feature of which TurboTax does to its own files, since I don't need to enter personal information again and it also does automatically any of the carry-over adjustment, such as capital gain loss, year over year property depreciation and etc.
dogmatixpsych said:Both TurboTax and TaxCut are easy to use (I think TaxCut usually gets slightly better reviews though). If your taxes really aren't too complicated then try one of the free online tax services (the government has a list of the providers IRS).
You can do federal taxes for free if you make less than $50,000/year (gotta love being a student) and state for pretty cheap (or just fill out state by hand and then it is free).
RJL1 said:Switching around can be good. Earlier this week I received a package in the mail from TaxCut. I'd used them a while back but had resorted to TurboTax in the last couple of years. Low and behold TaxCut had sent a "Welcome Back" free Deluxe version including State Tax software (including free e-filing), wanting to bring me back to using their software. Nice little value for having switched around, I'd say...
You may discover that it needs a paid-for activation code to make the software work. Turbotax has used this marketing method for years; looks like Block is doing it also.
NatronsMean said:Even worse, I have not been seeing the sweet deals where you can get a bunch of software for free. It's $50 for my usual, tax cut deluxe and state, get money 2006 free. Nothing in hot deals forum. Guess I'll wait for post-Christmas sales.
I have not really paid for TurboTax for so many years. Just buy it with other FAR items, apply a coupon, and sell the FAR stuff on eBay. I think I'm ahead by about $75 this year (4 FAR software items).
The 2003 version of Turbotax attempted to register itself automatically when installed. This is the basically the definition of "spyware". That year Turbotax received close to 20000 complaints with this issue. After that incident, I have been happy with TaxCut.
Not sure about whether you can import turbotax info from previous years into TaxCut but I know the other way around isn't supported by TurboTax. It only imports from its own files from previous years.
That means switching, you'll have to re-enter a lot of info. It's one way they think they'll retain customers. It might work but it also works to deter customers from switching so not sure what is better.
Anyway, used TaxCut previous years and this year I've had the opportunity to compare and I have to say that their interview process for deluxe versions of both is nicer for TaxCut than for Turbotax. Especially, the help section of Turbotax 2005 is way less clear than the equivalent of TaxCut. It quickly points you down to the tax publications themselves. Personally, I want to have to read as few as possible of those pubs so I would have preferred relevant advice (written in english not legalese hehe) throughout the interview and Turbotax definitely didn't seem very good for that this year.
I'd wait a little longer to make a decision and check out reviews. A lot of places will have reviews early January or before. Beyond the ones getting paid to throw a review in favor of one or the other, you'll be able to tell which is better. For me, I prefer TaxCut again this year after trying out both.
TurboTax conveniently mailed me a TurboTax Total Tax Solution Deluxe CD worth $39.95. I used TurboxTax last year to do my taxes. I am able to file Federal + State with this package.
If you can get hold of one of those $15 of 75 Staples coupons that everyone seems to be getting in mail, you can buy taxcut deluxe+MS money deluxe+shredder for $5 AR before FatCash and Staples rewards. I do that ever year just for the 1 yr credit monitoring that comes with money.
Sometime early next year there will be a list of software that can be used for free on the IRS web site. Last year there was turbo tax that I used and my return was fairly complex.
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