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TaxCut 2002 Deluxe Filing Edition

TaxCut 2002 Deluxe Filing Edition

List Price: $24.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I like TurboTax better
Review: After reading all the negative reviews on here, I decided to stray from my normal, which is ordering turbotax, to getting Taxcut this year. I am not happy with my decision. Turbotax is much easier to use and much more comprehensive in the deductions section. For example, in turbotax it is very easy to understand where to put your employee related expenses that are not reimbursed by your employer, however, in TaxCut it seems like they force you to go through the whole home office decuction thing instead.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: TaxCut LIARS
Review: As so many have written, it will not import TurboTax data, despite the fact that I had called AND written TaxCut prior to purchase.

They really pitched me on how easy it would be to change over. Heh. Boy, do I ever feel like a sucker.

I won't take everyone through my nightmare, but the upshot is that on my very powerful, new, no-problem pc, TaxCut doesn't cut it. It fails all over the place when trying to import my teeny file from TurboTax. Yet, they say it's too large a file. Right!

They have 3 fixes, and the "tech support" gives them over and over and over again. They won't listen that you've done those 3 things 20 times each, and they don't work.

So they got my money once, but they'll never get it again.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I have to agree - not a great program, but no spyware
Review: I used TurboTax for years but switched last year after a problem getting a promised rebate from them. I tried TaxCut and found it difficult and confusing. This year I considered buying TurboTax again, only to find that they're now installing Spyware on computers as part of the installation. So I guess I'll go with TaxCut. Beats doing taxes manually at least.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It's bad, but not as bad as TurboTax
Review: It's better than TurboTax (which I used last year) because it's easier to navigate the interview in TaxCut.

The help is equally bad for both programs, i.e. only answering most of the basic questions (but not all) and none of the complicated ones. The help does have some good examples, if your situation happens to resemble the examples.

TaxCut's main advantage over TurboTax is price. It took me about 2 hours less than it would have taken to do manually (I estimate), which makes it barely worth the [monety] it cost.

The TaxCut State program, for me, was a waste of money. Sure, there's a rebate to make it free, but the numbers it came up with were so improbably high that I ended up doing the state by hand. The state program apparently can't understand how one person could be a resident but the spouse can be a nonresident, so if you're not in this rare category it might work for you.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Avoid at all costs
Review: For the prior four years I used TurboTax. This year, heeding warnings of TurboTax's adware and spyware, I tried TaxCut. I found many differences between the two, with TaxCut being worse by far.

For example, where TurboTax asks simple questions in ordinary language, TaxCut's questions are often phrased in technical IRS jargon. Where TurboTax makes complex calculations "behind the scenes" using IRS rules, TaxCut in many cases requires YOU to make those calculations. In some cases the program required me to download an IRS publication and use a worksheet to figure out what TurboTax does automatically.

My taxes are not especially complicated. Part of my income comes from employment with taxes withheld, and part from self-employment, for which I pay quarterly estimated taxes. TurboTax handled both very easily, even figuring my estimated tax for the coming year (based on the prior year's income). TaxCut required me do make the estimates. When I entered the dates I had made quarterly payments during 2002, the program flagged them as errors ("dates are prior to beginning of year"). What year? 2003? They were estimated payments made DURING 2002. Because of such catch-22s as this, I finally just closed the program and uninstalled it.

In a nutshell, TaxCut requires you to interpret IRS tax rules and use them to make complex calculations that TurboTax does automatically. And TaxCut's "error" check put me in a trap I couldn't get out of. I will definitely not use TaxCut again.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Spyware Lite
Review: I think the biggest reason I bought TaxCut this year over TurboTax is the reports I have heard about the overly invasive TurboTax. This is the first year I've used the TaxCut software, moving away from TurboTax for privacy reasons. The software installs like any other Windows app and is reasonablly small on your HD. As others have reported, TaxCut did not import last year's TurboTax info as advertised. One demerit there! It's slightly easier to use than TurboTax as the interface is less busy. There is not an "update" button to update your info as you move along like TurboTax. It's nice to be able to change different income and tax combinations on-the-fly to see how your refund might change. Another demerit. I did not experience any printer gliches with TaxCut as I have with TurboTax so I guess they get +1 merit there. I didn't see my final 1040 displayed in WYSIWYG format, a waste of paper if you want to change things. Also, the refund instructions are contradictory so I wonder if I'll get the promised full amount back. Major demerit there! There was a "sofware upgrade" selection at the end that tied my MODEM up for about 20 minutes, who knows what it was REALLY doing there. It'd be nice to skip that step if you could. Overall TaxCut is pretty easy to use, less busy and has good video support from the CD. I suspect it's pretty invasive all the same though, a sign of the times unfortunately.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Wish we had gone with TurboTax
Review: This year we decided to go with TaxCut due to the security concerns of installing TurboTax - that was a mistake. Let me preface my review by saying that I have an IT background. I had trouble navigating through the steps and ensuring all the appropriate steps had been completed (when I actually filed, many checkboxes were still blank on the outline of steps to complete, but we felt confident the ones that were still blank did not apply - nevertheless it was very disconcerting). Navigation was also difficult when trying to find a specific form and the questions that populated that form.

At one point, I found myself in an infinite loop & multiple copies of the same form were being developed. I called technical support (a number they make it very hard to find) & did get to speak with someone who helped me resolve the problem.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: user
Review: This product is terrible. I've used Turbo Tax for years and switched because of the bad reviews on Amazon. What a waste of money. The questions are unclear, the help is terrible, and unlike Turbo Tax, which figures out what is needed for you, this program keeps asking questions that it should be able to figure out. Instead, I will have to sift through tax documentation to figure out the answers myself or buy Turbo Tax after all. This product is not much easier than just filling out the forms by hand.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Better than Turbotax? NO
Review: I used TurboTax for the past two years. After reading the review about TaxCut, got fooled to buy this product.

My wife has only Tax Payer ID (TIN), with that the state program didn't start to work and complained SSN is not correct! Customer service says update the latest from the website, looks like standard answer, that doesn't solve the problem. They never tested this simple thing I guess. Finally I found a workaround, enter some random SSN number for my wife and proceed to State program and then come back and change the SSN. What the heck? Then what about any complex calculations? How can you be sure that it has been tested?

I crosschecked my tax calculations manually to make sure it matches before e-filing. Good news is I got the refund in 8 days, a big relief to me.

I'll going back to TurboTax, no doubt.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Novice Tax Person
Review: TaxCut made my tax filing slightly easier for me. The program does not explain tax lingo sufficiently. Because of this program, I am extremely frustrated since I do not understand anything the program explained. As a result, I have many errors on my tax return. I am very new to doing my taxes on my own. In previous years, accountants did my taxes for me.


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