The program worked fairly well for my needs. I have investment income; I buy and sell mutual funds and must account for related gains and losses. I make withdrawals from an IRA. I have a few itemized deductions to evaluate.
The one thing that really flummoxed me is its inability to guide me through recognizing $50 of royalty income from natural gas on my personal residence property. I was issued a 1099-MISC for that trivial amount of income and proceeded to enter it as directed by the program. The result was a complete mess. Ultimately, the error-checking part of the program kept flagging errors associated with this to the point where I had to simply delete all forms related to it and hence not recognize that income. I could not figure out how to add the $50 of royalty it to my income.
It seems easier to use every year, except completing form 2210. That form is a nightmare, and I’m still not sure how it works, but somehow I haven’t had to pay the underpayment penalty. We’ll see what happens with this return.
I downloaded this from AMZ for 2019. I have been using H&R TaxCut since 2007 and have never regretted it. Every year they make it easier and easier to use. The couple of integrations that I do miss are with my credit unions. This year the "irewall challenge" made it difficult to directly pull in the details of my investments making it an annoying data entry challenge.
Pros: Easy to prepare, Fast
Cons: Time consuming, Doesn't maximize refund, Hard to import documents