Horrible experience this year. Completed taxes passed the review check and was rejected by IRS. Imported AGI did not agree with IRS AGI. I got the IRS receipt from last year's taxes to compare the values. There was about a $30 discrepancy. No way to fix this. Even though I amended the previous year's AGI on my H&R Block tax form, the software still would not import the corrected value. Went on line to fix this through the software there and decided to spend the money to have an agent review my taxes. This meant redoing my taxes as there was no way to import the completed taxes I had just done. After all that, the AGI from the H&R Block calculations now agree with the IRS value. Now I've wasted over $300 plus the original expense of having bought the software. This brings my total expense to close to $400. I could have gone to one of their offices and saved money! If this doesn't get some response, I'm going to lodge an official complaint.
I have been using H&R Block tax software for many years, and I generally like it. There is one thing that has always bugged me about it, as a self-employed person. From the moment you start, it shows you the amount of taxes you theoretically owe in the upper left corner of the screen. Of course, this number is mitigated by all the deductions and expenses you end up claiming, but the number is high and terrifying at the start, and quite anxiety-producing. I wish the user could toggle that off, so they don't need to be looking at this inaccurate but very pessimistic number all through their tax preparation. I'm sure most people don't mind this, but I HATE it. Sometimes I literally tape a piece of paper over that part of the screen so that I won't see this number staring me in the face the whole time. One other thing: this year I moved cross-country and was trying to claim my moving expenses, as I did once in the past. The software asked me the questions, and it took me over 45 minutes to fill in all the details. Then, at the end, it asked me if was military, and I said no. And it told me "sorry, only military people now qualify for this deduction." Why didn't it ask me that question up front?! That's an hour of my life I'll never get back!
Pros: Easy to prepare, Maximizes refund, Easy to import documents
The only complaint I have is that if you have multiple forms there is no way to know which one to choose by title, you have to open copy one, copy two, copy three to find the right one. Other than that the software is great.
I've been a happy H&R Block user for years but the 2023 premium edition was buggy this year and wasted a lot of my time (e.g. the Federal Return/Owe amount label on the top left didn't match the actual value at the end of the return, there were several 'hidden' copies of forms that were not reflected on the FE, calculations reflected the copies...had to find the copies and delete them via the 'whole forms' view) .... considering switching to Turbo tax next year