Review by M in SC

I bought TaxCut because at the time TurboTax had a stupid policy of charging an extra $10 for each printed tax return. They later reversed this, but I had already started preparing a year-end planning pro forma return using TaxCut. Now that I’ve used the product, it would have been better to stick with TurboTax even if I had to pay extra to print a planning return. (And of course, now TurboTax has dropped that stupid charge, so it’s no longer a problem.)nnTaxCut advantages: (1) it’s a little cheaper, and (2) it has some limited audit protection service built in. While I don’t think it’s as good as the extra-cost ($35) audit offering available for TurboTax, but for a relatively simple return it may save you from buying that kind of insurance. That’s it. In every other way TurboTax is better.

Here are just some of the TaxCut deficiencies: (1) Interview is MUCH less thorough. I found numerous areas where TurboTax takes you through detail with explanations while TaxCut just has you fill in a number without a lot of explanation. (2) One-click relevent help for each entry – TaxCut often sends you to a generic help page that’s not relevent, while TurboTax usually gives you immediate specific details about that particular line. The TaxCut online help is poor. (3) One-click access to itemized lists. Both products let you enter a mini-spreadsheet to sum totals for any entry. But when you go to re-open a list, TurboTax takes you right to the list, while TaxCut just gives you a menu of all the lists in your return, with no hint of which is which other than Form and Line Number. If you have a form open you can know the form and line number, but if you’re in the middle of an interview screen you need to have it all memorized, or else open the lists by trial and error. (4) Import from Quicken had a number of errors which needed manual correction.

I could go on with user interface and feature deficiences, but I’ll close with problems when installing updates. I went through a lot of trouble when the product said it needed to update itself, which it proceeded to do, except the update didn’t actually happen so it kept saying it still needed an update. TaxCut support responded promptly via online chat, but gave me bad advice involving dubious system startup changes. I actually found the solution in another one of these Amazon reviews when I did Google searches to find people who might have answers. This burned off a number of hours I could have spent doing something else!nnI do think TaxCut is adequate for relatively simple returns but I’m giving it a low 2-star rating because the alternative is quite a bit better and the prices aren’t much different.

PS when comparing prices, don’t forget that the cost to do STATE efile is big. (TurboTax also dings you for state efile.) Remember that to gain the benefit of TaxCut’s bundled audit assistance for your state return, you must efile.

PPS I also reviewed TurboTax 2008 when users were rebelling against the stupid pay-for-print policy. At the time I gave them one star, but now that the policy has changed I would raise my rating, except Amazon has no way to change a rating once published. If you happen to see both reviews, TurboTax is the better product.