Customer Reviews for H&R Block - Premium Tax Software
Customer Rating
4
Getting better every year but still not quite ther
on March 25, 2017
Posted by: Buzz9192
from Phoenix, AZ, United States
Marital status:Married
Every year it gets better with the explanations in the interview. However, it still leaves it up to the individual to find missing components (like pointing out all deduction opportunities and opportunity to purchase federal savings bonds with refunds) and it still has yet to incorporate all state tax extended forms (credits forms for example).
Stock trade information was not able to be loaded directly from all brokerage houses. Even when loaded, if hundreds (or more) trades had to be verified, the process was extremely time consuming and difficult to accomplish
Cons: Time consuming, Hard to prepare, Hard to import
A complicated year for us because we moved from one state to another. With the MD program the interview was confusing about what was "non-resident MD income" --tho the FAQ section was somewhat helpful I ended up getting the NC state forms and doing them by hand following their instructions--and then going back into the software to find out why it wasn't showing enough income for the non-MD residency when we still had income from MD. It was the question about the social security income that was to be deducted for MD. The program was going to deduct the MD portion TWICE on the non-resident form because of one of my interview answers that seemed correct given the question--what portion of the deductible (ss) income did you receive when you were a resident? When I changed the answer to indicate ALL of the year's ss income, the "long hand" (using MD directions from their website) and the H and R forms correlated. Whew. To have to leave the software and do the taxes the old fashioned way--and then return to the software to diagnose the disparity--makes me think I should ask for a refund of the state software program. We are not using the e-file because it won't work with the necessary overrides for computing the MD AGI ratio for the non-resident form --which the MD program told us we needed to do--but didn't instruct us how. Grateful for the software engineers who have brought these tax programs this far, but wishing I'd had a better experience with the MD program this year.
The software covered everything that I needed it to cover. The only flaw that I found was the software double-counted by real estate taxes. I entered them in for my wife's home office. I didn't know that I shouldn't enter them in for Schedule A until I reviewed my return. I had to go back in and remove the real estate taxes from the Schedule A itemized deduction section to get it to report accurately.
Have used HR Block Tax Software for years, but it seems every year at least one bug in the program causes a need to seek help with online chat or via phone. Enough to cause frustration and time loss and rate at 4 starts.
Cons: Hard to fix issues
Pros: Easy to install, Maximizes refund, Easy to import
I gave the program a 4 because form 4136 Credit for Federal tax Paid on Fuels. is not in the program so I cannot E file. It seems as tho this would be a common business form.