Review by bob fox

I am one of the people caught in TurboTax’s removal of forms from their Deluxe version, so I bought this version of H&R Block tax software. I filled out the interview portion of both TurboTax Deluxe (upgraded to Premium by Intuit) and H&R Block. The result was different numbers produced by the two tax software. I then needed to trouble-shoot the numerous numbers that were different. Trouble-shooting in TurboTax was easy because most cells have either a magnifying glass to show the source of the number in that cell, or I can right-click and see the source of the number. Unfortunately most of the cells in H&R Block do not have any was of determining the source.

Wow, I couldn’t believe that. I called the H&R Block customer service phone number and waited 35 minutes on hold, without knowing how many people were ahead of me. The representative I talked with didn’t know how to show the source of numbers in cells, so she requested a supervisor. About ten minutes later the supervisor came onto the phone and told me there isn’t any way to determine the specific source of the number. Only the general area of the interview process is sometimes known, but not any specific numbers or cells from other forms.

This leaves me with not being able to determine the reason for the difference in numbers between the two tax software. After using TurboTax for years, and being able to go back to the source, I can’t imagine using H&R Block tax software in the future and not being able to question or trouble-shoot the numbers I see. This is a HUGE problem. If a number doesn’t look reasonable, I need to be able to determine why the number is the value that is shown, and I can’t do that in H&R Block tax software ( a few cells, yes, but not for most cells).

Comparison of TurboTax and H&R BlocknImporting from TurboTax 2013:n TurboTax: Smoothlyn H&R Block: SmoothlynnImporting Brokerage accounts:n TurboTax: Accounts can be de-selected for importing, avoiding duplicating of some spouse accounts.n H&R Block: Accounts cannot be de-selected for importing. Some spouse accounts duplicate the tax payer accounts, resulting in some accounts being shown twice.

Schedule A, medical insurance:n TurboTax: Medicare, Part B, is included automaticallyn H&R Block: Medicare, Part B, must be manually addednnSchedule A, long term care insurance:n TurboTax: Part of the interview process, and a separate line in the worksheet.n H&R Block: No question or line. Must be manually added to the medical insurance.

Schedule A, line 5: local income taxes or sales tax:n TurboTax: TT automatically selected the higher amount.n H&R Block: The user needs to check one box, then the other, to determine the higher amount.

Customer service phone support:n H&R Block: 800-472-5625. No indication of how long the wait will be, to speak with someone.

Customer service web chat:n H&R Block: White screens in Chrome, Internet Explorer, and FireFox.