Customer Reviews for H&R Block - Tax Software Deluxe + State 2025 PC/Mac [Key Card] - Windows
Customer Rating
1
Concerns with software and help system
on April 11, 2022
Posted by: Concerns
from California
I have used for many many years but will need to change now because the software (and online system) would not allow filing of Form 8915-F with this year's return (I had used 8915-E last year). Help system was slow (wait time over an hour) and could not help with filing. I was required to send in additional information (8915-F) in hard copy by mail.
Your program stated the Federal refund for my daughter and son-in-law would be over $4,000. Less than $1,000 was sent. Several weeks later they received a letter from the IRS stating the calculations shown on the taxes were wrong. I will be switching to TurboTax or someone else next year.
After over a decade of great use of H&R Tax software, 2021 was my first year to have to file a paper form rather than e-file. There was no understandable explanation given by the software, so needless to say I am disappointed.
I have prepared my own taxes for over 30 years using Parson's, TurboTax, and Tax Cut which evolved into Block. In general, I have been satisfied with the software and how it has evolved over the years. I don't have super complicated tax situations, so the Deluxe version generally handles what I need. I will make three comments from recent observations and experiences. (1) I have come to realize that the software should not automatically be considered to be correct. In 2021, I investigated an issue regarding my Kentucky taxes and how charitable donations were limited to some percent of AGI. After showing him my tax forms, a KY Dept of Revenue CPI pointed out that the donation cap was not correct. After reading all the state and federal regulations, I contacted Block to report the error. It is nearly impossible to report an error in the software, but after about 4 months and multiple attempts, they finally forwarded my concerns to the programming group who acknowledged the error. Since that was April already, they said my overridden corrections were accurate but they could not make any software correction until the next year. The 2021 KY state version does seem to comply with all the correct donation caps, so they did make the fix. (2) This year I had to file nonresident state taxes for a land sale in Colorado. CO has a pretty simple flat tax structure for residents, so I first studied their related tax laws and attempted to just fill in the forms by hand. I finally decided to also buy the CO state tax software (at about twice what I paid for the initial fed and state software package) to just verify my numbers. I needed to submit five tax forms, and the Block CO state tax software supported only four of them. What was surprising is that for the one they did not support, they did not even include that topic in their interviews or options tables to let you know it would be needed. That line was included but just left blank in their worksheet form. Unless you had already read through the tax laws to know where the entry would come from (the 1-page form they did not support), you would not know that particular income subtraction even existed. I wound up submitting a printed file using their four completed forms plus the fifth that was completed manually. (3) The interview process is usually an effective way to enter information without the user knowing all the details of where information goes on the forms and what limitations may apply. The Block deluxe version has in the past just had you go directly to Form 1116 to compute the credit for taxes paid on stock dividends from foreign based companies. This year, they included that information in the interview process, which was relatively easy and straightforward. Not sure why the interview for 1116 was not included in past years. On the flip side, I needed Form 6252 to report an installment sale of real estate and Block just tells you to open the form and fill it out yourself. Since I had already wrestled with the Colorado state taxes issue, this was not terribly difficult, but I think could have been easily included in an interview format to assure users that it was all done properly. Final statement. I will continue using Block software in the future, but will do a thorough review of each completed form before submission since I now know that it can be wrong. I suspect state specific software has a greater chance of such errors since the much larger base of federal users would likely catch errors there very quickly.
I have used HRBlock software since 2010. This has been the worst year ever. On first return it did not include Misc Deductions in calculation. I had only efiled one document before trying to file 2nd one, I was told I had used up all 5 so I had to use a different code so I only got to file one return each for two licenses.