Guidance for all your personal tax situations. Federal forms and State forms. Step-by-step interviews guide you through a customized experience relevant to your tax situation. Everything you need to prepare your federal and state taxes in one complete program.Best Features:- Personalized tax advice
- Maximize mortgage interest and charitable deductions
- Sale of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds
Software Just like Previous Years. However, there are issues with updates on a Mac By T. Malyszko
I've been using H&R Block Taxcut since 2002 and have never had any issues with the software package. Since we itemize and have various capital gains/losses from investments, using a tax prep software is a must as our Federal Tax Return consists of 40+ pages when all said and done. I have always been pleased with the interface and this year's version is no different. One "upgrade" I really like this year is that H&R Block integrated the Deduction Pro right into the software package. This is very convenient as I no longer need to go to a separate website to take advantage of the software. It comes in handy since we have around 10 different Goodwill donations of clothes this year. Estimating the donate value is pretty easy with Deduction Pro.
This year's version, however, seems to have installation issues when using a Mac. This is the 2nd Mac version I've used (2011 being the first) and the initial software installs with no problems. However, the updates always stall at the following step --
Items remaining to be installed: 3211
Searching: iMac
I contacted H&R Block and they were not very helpful in getting the issue resolved. However, after about a week of self troubleshooting, I found the issue. The updates will stall out when Parallels and Time Machine are running. I have a 2.3 Terabyte Time Machine Archive (3 TB Firewire Hard Drive) and it seems the installer tries to do a search on the archive, which causes it to stall out. I let the installer run for 24 hours once and it still was stuck in the same spot. Once I shut down Time Machine, disconnected the Time Machine Volume and also shut down Parallels, the installer went through smoothly. Unfortunately, I've had to do this now with the 3 updates I've received from H&R Block. By the way, the Parallels conflict was discovered simply by coincidence, but I've found the install does not complete when it runs.
If it weren't for the update install issues, I would give H&R Block 5 stars. But because of the install issues, it drops to 3 stars. Next year, I'll probably buy the Windows version and install it on my Parallels image.Great user experience, some catches By John Maddux
I downloaded this software for my Macbook (Mountain Lion). Overall, the experience was very positive. This is the first year that my wife and I have not relied on the accountant that does one or the other of our parents' returns to do our taxes. Our taxes are relatively simple, since our income is all reported on various forms to the IRS, we don't have much personal property, investments, extraneous income, etc. I was curious about preparing our own taxes and figured that if there was ever a year to try the software out, this was it.
THE POSTIVE: The download is pretty straightforward and the program runs great. The interface is clean and simple and asks a series of questions that take you only to data entry forms that are relevant to you. I had no trouble with putting in my wife's multiple W-2s. The software was also informative, and I know have a much better idea of what I need to do this coming year to improve my deductions. At the end of the process, you select a state module and the program carries over relevant info from your federal return to make things simpler. When filing the return you have the option of eFiling the federal and state returns and or a "print forms and mail" option. eFiling the federal return was quick and easy, while I printed the state forms to avoid a fee. Next year I will likely use the software again, and it will be interesting to see how well it deals with the additional complications my finances are likely to gain over the next year.
THE NEGATIVE: There were a few catches to this software that I did no like. The first is that hitting "back" doesn't always take you to the previous screen, but often takes you to the screen that was the beginning of the section you are in. This gets a little confusing and makes things complicating. Also, I attempted to do some what if scenarios by guessing numbers for certain itemized deductions to see if it was worth me digging out the documents and crunching numbers, but it's not clear to me at what point data you enter gets computed into your refund. Several times I entered amounts that should have been deductible and hit "next" only to see no change on the refund.
Another major complaint I have is that your download comes with only ONE free chat session. I really don't think this is made very clear on the Amazon purchase page, and it certainly is not stated when you click the "get chat help" button in the program. As a result, I used my only free help session when I hit my first question, when I should have just wrote my concerns down through the process and then chatted once at the end and asked all my tax questions. Obviously, that's what I recommend you do. Additional sessions are $19.95 each! Along the same lines of hidden costs, my wife and I moved this past year so we needed to file two state returns. The software initially made this seem like no big deal. The first state downloaded with no problems and I completed that return. When it came time for the second state, however, the software wanted $40!!! Forty dollars for each additional state. That's more than the whole program! I downloaded the state forms myself and spent several hours reading instructions. It was a horrible pain and I was more than a little peeved. If you have just moved I would check to see if Turbotax charges for each state because it may end up being cheaper than this program if they don't. If you do decide to go with H&R Home Deluxe, I recommend downloading the state with the highest tax rates and/or the most complicated returns.
Finally, I'm not convinced that the software actually computes everything right with regard to scholarship/fellowship income. I input income from my 1098-T (scholarship income reporting from my university) including both wages and tuition expenses, and got a much higher tax amount than I got when I actually went to the IRS website and read the criterion for tax exempt fellowships. By my reading, almost all of the money should have been exempt, while the software wanted me to pay taxes on it. Further, the software never asked my any questions about the money about the criterion given online that would have made it tax exempt. So that's a concern that I have.
Overall, as I said, the experience was positive and I "liked" the program.Missing Forms By Brad
Does not account for Electric Vehicle credits or other items that pertain to a small percentage of filers. TurboTax does account for these items. Keep this in mind if using H&R Block. The Best-Selling H&R Block At Home Deluxe + State 2012 for Mac [Download] then to sell out very fast, if this is a must have product, be sure to order now to avoid disappointment.
