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TaxCut Deluxe 2003

TaxCut Deluxe 2003

List Price: $24.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointment after TurboTax
Review: After having to put up with all kinds of TurboTax registration B.S. last year I read the reviews of TaxCut purchasers who said it was a 4-star product with less hassles. This made me swear off ever using TurboTax again (couldn't use on more than one computer and I originally installed the software at work on a laptop that was leased etc. long story).

This year I made certain to buy TaxCut and avoid any registration hassles at all. What I received was a half-rate basic version of a tax program. This review wouldn't be that bad if I had purchased TaxCut Standard, but for the extra $20 I bought Deluxe. TaxCut Deluxe was a waste of money. No deduction help was included and the "extra features" were merely tax advice sections that mostly talked about preparing for next year.

As much as I hate to say it, I will be returning to TurboTax deluxe next year. It's ease of use, more intelligent screens and comprehensive deluxe version are all worth paying the extra $5 and dealing with the registration issues.

I recommend TaxAct for anyone who recently purchased this product. TaxAct is free and has 100% the functionality of this program.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointment after TurboTax
Review: After having to put up with all kinds of TurboTax registration B.S. last year I read the reviews of TaxCut purchasers who said it was a 4-star product with less hassles. This made me swear off ever using TurboTax again (couldn't use on more than one computer and I originally installed the software at work on a laptop that was leased etc. long story).

This year I made certain to buy TaxCut and avoid any registration hassles at all. What I received was a half-rate basic version of a tax program. This review wouldn't be that bad if I had purchased TaxCut Standard, but for the extra $20 I bought Deluxe. TaxCut Deluxe was a waste of money. No deduction help was included and the "extra features" were merely tax advice sections that mostly talked about preparing for next year.

As much as I hate to say it, I will be returning to TurboTax deluxe next year. It's ease of use, more intelligent screens and comprehensive deluxe version are all worth paying the extra $5 and dealing with the registration issues.

I recommend TaxAct for anyone who recently purchased this product. TaxAct is free and has 100% the functionality of this program.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This item is for last year's taxes only!!!
Review: Every year they put out a new version of the program updated for the current tax year. This TaxCut 2003 will not be useable for 2004 tax returns. Also, for those people who think that by buying their own tax program will save them a bundle of money, they are truly foolish. I do taxes for a living, not only at home, but for a tax professional office and these programs are not meant for people who don't know the tax laws and what forms they need to file. If they do their taxes wrong, the money they saved will go right to the IRS and state in penalties and interest. These programs will not protect you against that. Let electricians do electrical work, plumbers do plumbing work, and, for crying out loud - let tax professionals do tax work. These programs are not supposed to be easy, they are not for the average person to use.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Easy for me!
Review: Have always taken info to H%R Block office at a cost of up to $150.00. Decided to save that money this year(2003) and selected TaxCut for $20.00 with shipping.

I found the program easy to load and fairly easy to use. Had a little problem with one situation involving land rental, but figured it out with the use of the "Help" feature and some trial and error. Seemed to have just about every form most folks would need to complete their own taxes.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: TAX CUT is horrible
Review: I cannot think of a single reason you should have to click 3 buttons and go through 2 screens to enter 1 stock transaction. On the contrary, you should be able to enter 10 or more per screen. It took hours to enter 200 stock transactions.

Then, after the error check, certain transactions seemed to be duplicated. Upon trying to delete them with the delete button, they would not delete. If you change one of the duplicates, the contents of the other changes also. Then, looking through the list, I find that every one of the other duplicate transactions were duplicated again each time I tried to delete the first duplicated transaction pair. Now I have dozens of transactions that will not delete - after spending 2 days doing data entry and using the interviews for doing all data entry and changes, as the product recommends - - - even though it is excruciating slow work with the poor user interface design.

What a piece of junk. (And this was the final 2003 version - - - the one with all the latest fixes!)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: TaxCut Deluxe and DeductionPro
Review: I had none of the problems that several have complained about using TaxCut Deluxe 2003. I have used TurboTax before. I switched to TaxCut last year because of the many complaints TurboTax was getting about their registration program, spyware, etc. I had no problems completing my taxes, no duplications of W-2's, no problems getting updates. I found my experience with using this tax program not much different from TurboTax. I do have a problem with H&R Block though. TaxCut Deluxe offers a rebate for DeductionPro. The tax program will even take you to the H&R Block website to give you an opportunity to download the product to help with non-cash charity donations to calculate what should be claimed. The problem with downloading DeductionPro is that the rebate for the product is not honored if it is downloaded. It has to be purchased at a retail store to get the rebate. No where on the website, on the rebate coupon, or in the program does it state that the rebate is not good if the program is downloaded directly. It does indicate to send in the UPC code from the box of the product, but if I downloaded it directly from their website, they should have a record that it was purchased legally. They gave me some bogus excuse "that due to customer buying habits, we have elected not to honor rebates unless purchased from a retail store", or something to that effect. I think the product is good, but I don't like their business practices. I may well go back to TurboTax next year. I am giving the product two stars because of their business practices. Overall, I thought the way it handled my taxes was acceptable.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not as polished at Turbotax, but better value!
Review: I have been a loyal Turbotax user for years and decided to tryout TaxCut this year. I was EXTREMELY unhappy after last year's fiasco where Intuit installed Spyware without users knowledge in order to cutdown on copyright infringement of their product. Unfortunately, they ticked off the loyal users like myself. I believe they have lost/will lose more sales based on that fiasco than they could've possibly saved by catching a few people trying to copyright infringe!

Anyway, I was impressed with TaxCut especially for the price. I paid about 40% less for TaxCut Deluxe & TaxCut State than I would have paid for Turbotax Deluxe & Turbotax State.

For the most part, the programs are very similar. TaxCut does the usual interview process just like Turbotax and it makes it very easy to work with. Where TaxCut needs a bit more polish is in the fine details. Missing was the ability to save your tax returns into Adobe Acrobat format. I love that feature in Turbotax and really missed it.

In addition, I had a little trouble with form 4767 because I claim deductions for a home office and sold my house/moved this year. It worked out after some reading of the help file and IRS.gov site, but it could've been more intuitive.

Other than those couple of items, I was very happy with the program(s). I ran my return through Turbotax's website (without purchasing or filing it) and the numbers came out the same so I am satisfied with the accuracy of the software as well. Overall I'm glad I switched to TaxCut this year. I doubt I'll look at Turbotax in the future.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good value, experienced no problems
Review: I have been using TaxCut for several years and have not experienced any problems with the program. I do have to file the 1040 and have to use several of the various worksheets, but do not have a home office or some of the other complications mentioned in other reviews.

I think it is a wonderful tool that has saved me a lot of time preparing my family's tax returns.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A maddening program
Review: I used Turbo Tax for several years with few problems but decided to try TaxCut this year, since it is cheaper and, according to reviews at Amazon, quite similar.

I may have saved about ten dollars, but it took me four or five hours longer to do my taxes than would have been the case had I used Turbo Tax. TaxCut does not download 1099 information from most financial institutions, the "help" feature is almost always well... unhelpful. One calculation in my return was unquestionably wrong (the software designers seemed to suspect that it might not give the right figure for many users and thus suggests overriding the program's calculation--but overriding a single figure means the program will not allow you to file electronically. The program mysteriously made extra copies of many forms.

The main point of TaxCut seems to be to sell H&R Block products. If you want a user friendly tax preparation program, you would do well to look elsewhere.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Terrible Customer Support, No Refund
Review: I've used TaxCut for a few years and used to be satisfied with it. But this year I ran into a bug (in my copy anyway) that TaxCut tech support hasn't been able to fix or provide a workaround after many email exchanges (there is no phone support). I finally asked for my money back; they refuse to refund my money because I bought TaxCut more than 60 days ago. In fact, I bought it back in December and so there is no way I could have made use of the product within the first 60 days. Their tech support is lousy, their product has bugs (which tech support can't duplicate), and worst of all, they won't consider a refund.


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