Review by Ali Julia

I’ve used TaxCut every year since 1995. Several times when I saw a promotional deal I purchased both TaxCut and TurboTax to compare. I repeated this experiment this year. I found that TurboTax did not do anything better than TaxCut while costing consistently more.

TaxCut software also wins if compared to the free on-line options. I don’t like using the on-line tax programs for two reasons (1) I don’t want my financial data to be on someone’s web site (2) free offers include the Federal tax only.

H&R Block tax software does a good job despite having a few flaws, my two pain complaints:nn1. My annual pet peeve: foreign tax credit over the limit to be directly on 1040 is not done automatically, it require entering data manually. This form is not that hard to do manually as this form does not change year to year, but not it is not clear to me why the program cannot do the right thing.

2. Copy and Paste from Interview screens is not possible. Sometimes I wish to do it for some issue as a reminder to myself. My solution is to do PrintScreen (holding ctl key, shift key, and printscreen key at the same time). This generates an image of the screen, which I paste into paint or photo editing sofware which I can print or save for later.

In addition to tax software, the package includes DeductionPro software. I find it helpful in organizing and valuating charity donations, such as clothing and household items.

The interview process is helpful in reminding you things you might have forgotten. On-line help is useful. Despite a few annoyances, it does a good job.