Rating: 
Summary: A major headache
Review: Just finished using TaxCut Standard 2002 Federal. Absolutely awful as compared to TurboTax. Many questions and statements in the interview are ambiguous. The navigation through the program is good, but TurboTax did a better job of helping you categorize some entries. In many cases, TaxCut defaults to IRS tax guide language, which is sketchy, at best. For example, under itemized deductions, TaxCut uses standard government language for the various item categories, including the nebuluous "other." TurboTax uses more familiar categories, distinguishing such items as "software," an item TaxCut does not recognize. Also downloaded TaxCut State 2002 for Georgia. Georgia has not adopted the Federal Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002 that allows you to take a bonus depreciation on certain types of property. The bonus must be excluded on the Georgia return (and in many other states.) TaxCut leaves you hanging on this issue, tells you to get the Georgia forms and rework the depreciation for Georgia manually. I gave up at that point and bought TurboTax. TurboTax accounted for all of the state and federal law differences automatically and, it also filled out all of the additional state forms without prompting. One last problem with TaxCut. If you elect to use the integral electronic filing system, it balks at "too many ___ forms" "too many entries per ____ form" and "wrong punctuation on line ____," etc. TurboTax did the electronic filing without a hitch.
Rating:
Summary: Usable and cheap but quirky and uneven
Review: Like others, I am long-time TurboTax user but switched to TaxCut because of the new copy protection scheme in TurboTax (see amazon.com's reviews of TurboTax for more information). TurboTax is much smoother and slicker than TaxCut. For example, like TurboTax, TaxCut keeps a running display of your tax liability/refund. However, on my system the number is cut off by other elements of the screen, so I can only see part of the number. This same problem persists throughout much of TaXCut. I suspect it comes from the fact that I use the Large Fonts settings for my desktop, but that is no excuse for a garbled display. Furthermore, when attempting to print I got a program crash. The TaxCut website was no help in resolving this. There are a few other quirks that show a lack of care (e.g., when filling out the home office deduction, you have to "fake" out the error-checking part of TaxCut by putting in a value for value of your home even if you rent). The printouts are also slightly off with some some of the numbers and form elements just slightly askew. Although this does not mean the program is unusable, it is annoying. In summary: usable and cheap, but quirky. Advice: turn on the Autosave feature and save often.
Rating:
Summary: Not as smart as it should be.
Review: My tax situation might be different than most, but I feel like it is still worth warning folks that this software doesn't know/do as much as TurboTax. I used TT for the last 2 years with no problem, but the reviews on the 2002 edition were terrible because you have to maintain an internet connection. So, I bought this - what a mistake. I have something on line 14 of my W2's for some stock options I cashed in. This program didn't understand what was going on and kept telling me I had a problem because line 1 & 5 didn't match. Then it tried to ding me twice by recording it as a Capital Gains on a Schedule D. Turbo tax understood that my Line 14 was related to my Capital Gains and handled it appropriately. Of course none of this should be so complicated that I have to trust a software program at all, but I guess that is the way it is... TaxCut may be fine if you have "routine" earnings and deductions, but I would worry that if it can't handle my situation and TurboTax can - what else can't it handle? Needless to say I am using TurboTax's online version this year. That was [a waste of money]...
Rating: 
Summary: Does what it needs to do
Review: Personally, I think the government should supply us with free programs for tax calculations - it's their complicated rules after all. I'm convinced it would save everyone money by eliminating errors. But until that happens a software program is well worth the investment. After reading all the negative reviews on TurboTax, I opted for TaxCut this year. I want Intuit to realize that I have no interest in buying software that installs spyware and advertisements on my computer. ...P>TaxCut did try to put Earthlink on my computer, but after a refusal it never tried again. I guess I can live with that. It was easy to use and almost as straight forward as TurboTax. I had no problems with installation or updating it. The only reason I knocked it down to 4 stars is because the appearance was a little bit distorted. The boxes where data is typed in (e.g W-2 forms) had the numbers not really aligned with the boxes. Also, all the text was in a little box using up maybe 30% of the screen. Most of the time that was fine, but sometimes you had to scroll down to see the remaining data. If you weren't careful, you could miss the fact that there was more to be seen. Not a big problem - but it does leave the possibility someone will miss a box or instructions that way. And generally, it's just not as user-friendly and obvious as it could be. So, it just needs a few tweaks. The important thing is it works and I was done in 1.5 hours. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Better hope you don't need support.
Review: TaxCut provides support via a long-distance number (Dallas, TX) not an 800 number. Their tech support online is useless unless you just need some hand holding. They promise e-mail Tech support in 48 hrs, but my request took over a week to get a non-satisfactory reply. I wanted to return this for a refund, you'll also find they make that difficult.
On a side note, if you were leaving TurboTax because of the spyware/spam associated with it, TaxCut may not be a good choice either. Read their privacy policy, they will sell your information to third parties.
Rating: 
Summary: Tax Cut does it better!
Review: Thankfully, I was able to heed the advice of many former Turbo Tax users and purchase Tax Cut right off the bat. Tax Cut works wonderfully, and I experienced no problems in installing or using the problems. A very seamless operation, indeed. To those who are skittish about switching to Tax Cut (i.e. afraid of change or the unknown) let me assure you, Tax Cut works just as well as Turbo Tax, but without the added problems of installation and operation. I say this, as a former Turbo Tax user from way back when it was part of Parsons Technology. I give Tax Cut a big Five Stars! And the Turbo Tax people need to take notice here. In fact, I think it's the whole Intuit culture that needs to be changed, when they try to foister outrageous things upon their users (Intuit QuickBooks users: remember when they forced you to 'subscribe' to the payroll tax tables and gave you no choice otherwise?).
Rating:
Summary: Switched from Turbotax
Review: The transition was reasonably smooth since it not only imports basic data, but also schedule B stuff so you don't have to re-enter it. There's a $$ rebate in the box, so effective cost is $$. It has a good 'What if' section so you can play with alternative scenario's like Roth conversions. What you don't get are those silly 'talking head' advisors and a state version. I use a spreadsheet for the state since the calculation and fill-in is really simple...if your state is highly complex, get a deluxe. Oh, and I was able to reach and talk to a helpful tech suppport person on a minor issue....try that with anything made by intuit without whipping out your plastic.
Rating: 
Summary: Inconsistent
Review: These types of programs should require entry of information only once. I had to enter my mortgage interest twice, dependent care expenses twice, and my final payment three times. I'm still not sure that it figured out our 403(b) plans correctly - it looks like we're getting hit for going, say, $5000 *over the limit* of $11,000 instead of just contributing $5000. However overall, it wasn't an awful experience - the program installed and ran fine, and when I compared the print output with last year's return prepared with TurboTax, the results were pretty consistent, including the 403(b) issue. I don't know what I'll use next year, though. Both programs have their drawbacks. If basic TT won't import last year's info, then the double entries in TaxCut may still be comparatively better.
Rating:
Summary: Zero stars would be more accurate
Review: This program insisted on a 4/15/03 or earlier date for one entry, but wouldn't let me enter it! It kept producing an error message. I finally had to use a 4/16/03 date which allowed the return to process. The next day the return was rejected for a late date, even though the software said it would be registered as on time if submitted before midnight which it in fact was. It then wouldn't allow me to log on to check on my re-submitted return. Live technical support was worthless, as they will not acknowledge or correct this major software error. I have used Turbo Tax for the previous several years without a glitch, and even saved money by using it. I didn't care for the spyware they have installed, and thus didn't use it this year. My returns are relatively simple and usually are done in an hour or less with little effort, using TT. Don't waste your money on Taxcut, and learn how to uninstall spyware.
Rating:
Summary: Wouldn't buy if you want to E-File
Review: This program would not let me e-file. It flagged an item it should not have and would not allow an e-file. After multiple e-mails to the company and basically useless answers I purchased TaxAct that accepted and e-filed the data just fine. I used Turbo-tax last year that also worked fine with the same situation. Basically all three tax programs worked about the same for the data input part. My situation was I needed to claim alimony during a seperation. The program flagged that I could not have the same Social Security Number for both a spouse and an alimony receipent. I even had to refer to the IRS publication paragragh about this in an attempt to get a decent resolution out of the company. This program did not perform as expected and the "technical help" was useless. I wasted time and money by (not) using this software and would buy something else if you don't have a very simple return.
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