Review: H&R Block's TaxCut

Today I finished my taxes, and I thought I would give a review of the software I used: H&R Block's TaxCut (for year 2007 of course) Premium Federal + State. I'm sure that it is available from a number of places, including the H&R TaxCut Website, but I bought it from Walmart for $34.96 +tax, which is cheaper than buying off the website. I did not buy the e-file option because I can mail it in for much cheaper, and don't feel like the additional support is likely to add a great deal of value for me. In comparison, TurboTax from Walmart was approximately $69 in order to have all the forms in the software that I would use.

I have used TaxCut for the past 3 years, and this year thought that the product was much improved. While I don't have the most complicated of taxes returns to complete, I did have interest income, capital gains and stock transactions to report. In addition, I had plenty of deductions to take as well as a Hope Credit. Previously I had to fill out the actual forms on a couple of items because the questions they asked didn't quite cover the situation - I remember specifically student payments being an issue, as well as my mortgage since it isn't through a banking institution. However, this year it was much easier to fill out all the information, and the process seemed to flow very nicely.

Installing the program was a little tricky, only because my computer acted up, and not because of the software itself. Once it was installed, it took me approximately 2 1/2 hrs to complete both my state and federal returns, check it over, and print it out. A nice feature that I didn't remember before was it reminded me deduct any payments for state taxes that were part of my 2006 taxes, but were payed in 2007. For me, I had underpaid on my state taxes, so the $308 check that I sent when I sent in my state return I could deduct. That translates into roughly $75 savings. This year I didn't use any of the tutorials, but previously I have found them to be adequately helpful or better.

Overall, TaxCut is easy to install and use and with the price is one of the best values for your money if you can't use a free online service such as TaxSlayer.

Recommendation: Highly Recommended

Fine Print: I am not in any way affiliated with H&R Block or TaxCut, nor am I in any way compensated for this review. Additionally, I am not a tax professional, so nothing in this review should be taken as tax advice. For your specific situation you should talk with a tax professional.