Rating: Summary: needs improvement, but still worthwhile Review: A must have for garage sale addicts. My usual pile of donations was valued at over eighteen hundred dollars, according to the software. Valuations tend to be over thrift store prices. The software is fairly easy to use, but watch out-its easy to delete all your donations. The receipt printout was useful.
Rating: Summary: Caution! Only good for 1 year... Review: After reading the prior reviews, I'd say my review falls somewhere in the middle. The negative: Yes, it is annoying (and costly) that the software is locked for a specific tax year upon installation. I wonder just how much the value of a used pair of jeans actually fluctuates year-to-year? Especially since upon buying the software you have the choice of locking for 2002 or 2003! I also found it aggravating that you could not print out any reports that include their listing of the fair market prices. I also agree that the groupings of items are limited, though it worked well enough for us (since we mostly donate clothing). The positive: I did not have any problems installing or using the product. Part of that is probably because this package is nothing more than a glorified spreadsheet of wholesale prices. There's not a lot to it, really. However, the results of the software are indisputible as far as I'm concerned. In past years my wife and I have basically guessed at the fair market prices of our yearly donations to Goodwill. Basically that amounted to assigning garagesale low prices. This year we used ItsDeductible... and WHOA what a difference! We found out we had been WAY underestimating our prices. This alone paid for the price of the software tenfold. Your results may vary, but I will say: if you've been guessing at prices, you're probably wrong! Using TurboTax it imported my ItsDeductible data smoothly. All in all we are pleased with this software and will purchase the 2003 version next tax season.
Rating: Summary: simple package that serves its purpose Review: After reading the prior reviews, I'd say my review falls somewhere in the middle. The negative: Yes, it is annoying (and costly) that the software is locked for a specific tax year upon installation. I wonder just how much the value of a used pair of jeans actually fluctuates year-to-year? Especially since upon buying the software you have the choice of locking for 2002 or 2003! I also found it aggravating that you could not print out any reports that include their listing of the fair market prices. I also agree that the groupings of items are limited, though it worked well enough for us (since we mostly donate clothing). The positive: I did not have any problems installing or using the product. Part of that is probably because this package is nothing more than a glorified spreadsheet of wholesale prices. There's not a lot to it, really. However, the results of the software are indisputible as far as I'm concerned. In past years my wife and I have basically guessed at the fair market prices of our yearly donations to Goodwill. Basically that amounted to assigning garagesale low prices. This year we used ItsDeductible... and WHOA what a difference! We found out we had been WAY underestimating our prices. This alone paid for the price of the software tenfold. Your results may vary, but I will say: if you've been guessing at prices, you're probably wrong! Using TurboTax it imported my ItsDeductible data smoothly. All in all we are pleased with this software and will purchase the 2003 version next tax season.
Rating: Summary: ITSDISGUSTIBLE Review: Beware. Only until after I had purchased this product did I find out it was restricted to one use, one year only. You cannot use it for other members of your family household. Smacks of the earlier attempt by TurboTax to limit use of that product to a single computer, the one on which it was registered. I am tired of such antic$. I have switched to TAXCUT and also returned this one. Customer service said "we are not in Calcutta" but I did not pursue that point. Ken
Rating: Summary: ITSDISGUSTIBLE Review: I bought this product, and the mandatory internet update failed. I attempted to contact their Tech Support and one month later they opened the mail !!), but offered no support at all beyond the stock answer listed in their FAQ's (which I had already tried, and told them so). It also appears to have nasty anti-copy measures built in, so a reinstall won't work and the program won't even load now. Consider your options before buying this!
Rating: Summary: Non-existant Tech Support means take a Pass Review: I bought this product, and the mandatory internet update failed. I attempted to contact their Tech Support and one month later they opened the mail !!), but offered no support at all beyond the stock answer listed in their FAQ's (which I had already tried, and told them so). It also appears to have nasty anti-copy measures built in, so a reinstall won't work and the program won't even load now. Consider your options before buying this!
Rating: Summary: A Good value Review: I found It's Deductible to be an easy to use piece of software. While I was dissapointed in the one-year licensing aspect of it, I saved many times the investment in tax savings of dontated items for 2002. I really did estimate too low, real market value on many of my donations made in 2002. I am buying a second copy to track my donations throughout 2003. It imported very well into Turbo Tax as well.
Rating: Summary: Many short comings Review: I have used and tested hundreds of software apps for over 20 years and it never ceases to amaze me how brain dead most of them can be. First, the version that was shipped to me from Amazon in January 2003 was Ver.6.0.2. Very unstable. Frozen screens. Via email, their tech suggested that I update, on line, to Ver.6.2. No more frozen screens. I had hoped that the new version would allow the main screen to be maximized. No such luck. Tech support says you cannot max the main screen. "It is a limitation of the software." No, it is the limitation of the programming effort. The report screens can be maximized, but not the main screen. Go figure. Here is the most salient disappointment in this "software." You MUST pay for annual updates, as you would a tax program. In fact, when activating the software, you must choose a single tax year. Their excuse is that fair market values change every year and of course they would not want you to use old data. Right. My beef is that the company (and thus Amazon) does not inform the purchaser prior to purchasing that their software is only good for one year. This is simply sleazy. The values they determine for donated goods are much higher than the actual thrift store values. Which is okay for my deductions, if, in fact, they are accurate. Finding items to be donated is a bit kludgy. They use drop down categories that are not all that logical, e.g. I had trouble finding hats. They decided to call them caps. Silly me. They are very, very weak on electronics, computer items, etc. But strong on designer kitchenware. Go figure.
Rating: Summary: Time & money saver Review: I just finished using Its Deductible to calculate the value of the clothing that we donated last year & it netted us another $199 in tax savings. It was very dificult determining "fair market value" on my own in prior years & this was a welcome helping hand. The only down side for me was that it did not have any provisions for people who donated automobiles (a minor problem). The program is also great for keeping track of cash charitable contributions as you make them instead of waiting until it's time to do your taxes. It also prints detailed reports on all of your activity.
Rating: Summary: Time & money saver Review: I just finished using Its Deductible to calculate the value of the clothing that we donated last year & it netted us another $199 in tax savings. It was very dificult determining "fair market value" on my own in prior years & this was a welcome helping hand. The only down side for me was that it did not have any provisions for people who donated automobiles (a minor problem). The program is also great for keeping track of cash charitable contributions as you make them instead of waiting until it's time to do your taxes. It also prints detailed reports on all of your activity.
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