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Taxcut 2002 Platinum (Mac)

Taxcut 2002 Platinum (Mac)

List Price: $39.99
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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Back to TurboTax Mac next year
Review: The Good: TaxCut is less expensive than TurboTax and was first to OS X last year. Now it imports last year's TurboTax data!

The Bad: Now I know why it's cheaper. TaxCut is a mere advertisement for H&R Block. The program does its best to confuse the user into giving up and driving to the local office for human filing help. TaxCut's web-based "Help" system will run you around in aimless circles. The so-called automatic update asks for permission to connect to the Internet, even though that's how the Help works the entire time. If it finds an update, the program claims that it will handle everything. Not true, it simply dumps you on their web site where it doesn't even show you which files you should download and manually install. Skipped an interview question accidentally? Don't try the Back button, because half the time it will skip back an entire section instead of that last page. You get to start over! What about that one year head-start in OS X? I guess it wasn't long enough to pop the lid on Cocoa so we could use a mouse with a scroll wheel.

The Ugly (as of April 13): Pop-up menus in the interview questions look empty until you pop them open. After you make a selection, it doesn't show anymore, as the size goes back to zero. After you complete a section (i.e. 1099-MISC worksheet) and come back to its directory, sometimes the item you just created will display and sometimes it won't. And I hope you didn't change your mind about that single item you decided to add in an Itemize list yesterday. When you open your file today, the entire list you created will now be titled "untitled" and contain one item called "value."

The Fugly: TurboTax import? All seemed well until I got to the final error check. "You have 270 errors and 4 warnings." Why? Because I suddenly had 69 depreciation lists, only three of which were legit. All 270 errors stem from a logical error taught in programming 101: Anywhere I'd entered a "No" or zero in TurboTax was now a blank in TaxCut, and it thinks I haven't answered questions about whether I've sold an item or not, or to which copy of the Schedule C this should be applied. There wasn't even a way to mass-delete all the extra forms. I had to visit each form to delete it. When I got to the vehicle expense section, my vehicle from the previous years didn't show up. I guess it didn't import. Wait! Yes it did, because now I'm getting errors for each one, also because of one or two "missing" choices. Waste more time repairing, and.. No errors, no warnings, proceed to state.. Three warnings. Visit the first warning. An incomplete description, circular Help, and a suggestion to modify the "form below." There is no form below. That's enough.

The numerous and pathetic bugs in TaxCut would be acceptable in other types of software. But this is a program with a deadline, written by people who are supposed to be good at details (if nothing else). I'm left feeling unsure about my personal taxes for the first time in several years of MacInTax aka TurboTax Mac. As much as I don't like Intuit's attitude towards customers or their decision this year to charge extra for Schedule C help, I'll be looking at TurboTax next year.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Product
Review: They got it right with TC Platinum. Quick, easy to use and everything is there.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Unusable
Review: This program reported an error with my choice of charity, downloaded update (none available), repeated error - download. I never was able to file my return.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Must use Explorer as your default browser!
Review: Well, today is April 13, and this probably won't appear in time to help anyone, but I noticed that a couple of reviews below noted problems with the web-based help system, so here's the cure: YOU MUST USE MICROSOFT'S INTERNET EXPLORER AS YOUR DEFAULT BROWSER. (Or, at least not Apple's Safari. I didn't try Netscape, Chimera, Opera, etc.)

And since I'm here, I may as well chime in with the other folks who found this software buggy and unreliable. I did my taxes by hand until last year, when I bought TaxCut because MacWorld magazine gave it the nod over TurboTax. It worked fine, and I was happy: I have a rather simple return. So, I went with TaxCut again this year, but have had a number of problems. I've had to re-enter my non-cash charitable dedections at least four times, becasue TaxCut keeps losing them, even though I routinely save often. It's crashed several times for no apparent reason (on an iMac G4, 256 MB, OSX 10.2.4).

Well, next year's another year.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Your life for sale
Review: When I registered, I declined to receive offers from H&R Block "partners." However, they sold me out and I'm now getting e-mails I don't want. Just keep that in mind when you decide to register the product.

Who knows what other information they "passed on."

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Your life for sale
Review: When I registered, I declined to receive offers from H&R Block "partners." However, they sold me out and I'm now getting e-mails I don't want. Just keep that in mind when you decide to register the product.

Who knows what other information they "passed on."


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