My Take: H&R Block Tax Cut

In the interests of full-disclosure, I purchased H&R Block Tax Cut before signing up for affiliate ads. 

We’re filing our taxes ourselves this year and decided to get tax software. We don’t believe our filing will be complicated, but between the move and some other changes, we wanted a program to enter our financial information. After some thought, I picked  H&R Block Tax Cut, specifically the Premium Federal Edition. 

TaxCut appealed to us for two reasons:  Ask a Tax Advisor (1 session) and Worry Free Audit Support. We don’t anticipate an audit, but I might have a question or two concerning our taxes. 

I picked up the program from Wal-Mart Tuesday as I was picking up a gift for some friends. It was by the electronics section and there were three options to choose from: TaxCut Basic Federal + E-file, TaxCut Premium Federal + E-file, TaxCut Premium Federal + State + E-file. I didn’t see the TaxCut Home & Business + E-file Edition, maybe they were sold out at the store.  

When I reviewed the package  a bit more at home, I noticed that I also got WILLPower CD for estate planning. Installation didn’t take too long. I installed both TaxCut and the Deduction Pro program that came free with the software. When I first ran the program, it checked for update, which was about a minute or two. Maybe this will motivate me to actually get some important paperwork done.

Our Premium Federal Edition of  H&R Block Tax Cut includes up to 5  free federal e-files and 1 state e-file. Since we moved, we’ll need to pay for the second state.  I decided to start entering our information into the program. We’re still waiting on some W-2s to complete our filing and as they come in, I’ll enter them. The process is relatively painless and it’s like an interview with questions to answer. It’s easy to save and enter new data in our return.

It transferred our federal return information to our state return, a nice time saver. So far, I’m finding the program to be easy to use and I don’t feel intimidated with getting our taxes done.  I like the summary pages which allow to go back fairly quickly to section you want o double check or update. My only big gripe is that a second state e-file is $19.95. 

Update: We sent our federal and one state tax return through the e-file. It was quick and painless. The other state needs a paper tax return, so I’ll get busy with sending that tomorrow. 

Operating Systems for H&R Block Tax Cut: 

• Windows XP / 2000 / Vista
• Mac OS X

Tax Resources

• IRS Makes Free Tax Guide
• Free Tax Help from IRS
• Where’s My Refund
• Tax Credit Aids First-time Homebuyers
• Tips to Avoid Problems with the Recovery Rebate Credit 
• Overlooked Tax Credits

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