Side by Side Comparison of: H&R Block vs TaxACT, Inc.

Switched from Turbo Tax after 15 years because of reduced capabilities in the Deluxe version this year. H&R Block Deluxe Tax Software installed correctly the first time, imported the data from my 2013 Turbo Tax return, and imported my 2014 data from Quicken. In about 90 minutes, I had a first pass look at my 2014 return.First impression is that H&R Block Deluxe is as easy to use as Turbo Tax and at about half the price, I 'll be back again next year.

I purchased H&R Block Deluxe 2014 with State and Federal E-File after hearing of the latest Intuit debacle with TurboTax 2014 Deluxe. I was a bit apprehensive after having used TurboTax for 20+ years, but I have to say that I'm very pleased with the H&R Block product. First, the cost was half of what TurboTax Deluxe costs this year. Second, the H&R Block product is complete with all the forms and support you expect from the middle-of-the-road version of a tax preparation program. I need more than the basics, but not the business-class product. This product covers my needs, whereas the TurboTax Deluxe product doesn't.I was able to install the H&R Block software with no problems on my laptop running Windows 7. After entering the activation code, the program found my 2013 TurboTax return and with one click, imported all of my data without any problems. So far, I've only gone through the personal information section, but I can say it is every bit as simple as TurboTax.If you are as confused and disappointed with Intuit as I am, don't hesitate to make the switch to H&R Block. I'm certainly glad I did.2/2/2015 Update:I just completed my federal and state returns and can now say without a doubt, that I will never look back to TurboTax. The HR Block interview process was very simple and efficient. The filing process was straight forward and my e-filed federal return was accepted by the IRS within an hour of filing. I printed my state return and will drop it in the mail tomorrow. Done!

I tried HR Block Deluxe plus state after reading about the TT changes. The disk installed quickly on Windows 7. I had no problems importing my 2013 TT return. It handled my Schedule C and D easily. It seemed more streamlined than TT and the results basically matched the estimates I had got using TT 2013 with my 2014 inputs. My state forms are not available until January. Happy I switched and saved money.

After 15 years with Turbotax Deluxe I bought H&R Block Deluxe for $40 rather than paying about $90 for Turbotax Premier since I have stock sales every year and could no longer use Turbotax Deluxe and file electronically. The Mac disc loaded fast and it transferred my 2013 Turbotax return data without an error. It took a while to get used to the H&R Block data entry format but once I understood it my data entry went well. I can highly recommend this program as long as you are wiling to spend some time getting used to it if you have been a Turbotax user for many years as was my case.

Have used this since it was first introduced under the name "Tax Cut" and my son's father in law ,a former tax partner for a major accounting firm, has done the same. It is an excellent program and the more and more complex the tax laws become the more it is necessary to use either a professional preparer or a program of this kind for your tax preparation. Alas, in the early days they gave all states as part of the program. Now if you need more than one state you will have to buy the added states. As a former tax attorney I tend to prepare my return using the forms and then go back and go through the interview process to confirm my work and catch anything I might have missed. I switched to what was then Tax Cut because back in dial up internet days it took hours for Turbo Tax to update while Tax Cut updated much faster. Today with most of us with high speed internet that is not as much of an issue. As with any tax program you have to be extremely careful to be sure your inputs are correct. But for the most part the program is intuitive and easy to use. It is the tax program I recommend to friends and family.

I purchased the H&R Block 2014 Tax Software + State after the price for the equivalent TuboTax climbed to twice the cost of this product. TurboTax dropped the Form D from their Deluxe package which would have made it necessary for me to buy the TurboTax Premier. IMO, the H&R Block software responds much faster and is much easier to navigate. This software appears to be complete, provides Federal e-filing and includes one state software. If you don't need the state, H&R Block has a separate package without the state for about $10.00 cheaper than this. So far, I'm much happier with the H&R software.

11/6/15Well, I was checking out my Amazon reviews and realized I forgot to update this one. Dohp! In the end, H&R Block did the job, and I will be buying it again next year. Everything worked well, EXCEPT for filing the state part of my tax return.I was able to e-file the federal part of my taxes with no issues whatsoever. For some reason, I could not get the e-file to work for state taxes. I did owe the state a small amount of tax, so maybe that was part of the problem. I figured since I was able to e-file federally and pay a small amount of tax there as well, the state e-file should have worked as well. No dice. So, I just printed out the forms, attached my check, and dropped it in the mail. Never had this problem with Turbo Tax.ORIGINAL REVIEW:I'm a long time Turbo Tax customer (15+ years) making the switch this year due to Turbo Tax dropping the ball wrt their premium vs deluxe versions. Thank goodness for competition and good alternatives!1/25/15 -- So far so good. I bought the CD from Amazon. It arrived with no issues. I ran into the installation issue mentioned in other reviews ie when I tried to run the DVD's auto-installer program, it failed. I'm running Windows 7 Pro x64, SP1. I ended up running the installer manually by double clicking on the program under D:\installers\<super long but intuitive program name>. (D: is my DVD drive.) No problems with that install. Not sure why it failed. Oh well, I got it working with minimal fuss.The acid test - could it import a password protected 2013 Turbo Tax file? Yep - no problems! Color me impressed. So far, I've only verified my family's data (married filing jointly with kids), and everything looks legit. Woot!I will update the review after I've done my entire federal tax return, including state. So far, it only gets 4 stars due to the installation hiccup.

I have been a TurboTax user since 2002. I decided to try H&R Block Fed + State 2014 this year. I didn't have any problem getting used to the way H&R collects its data. Importing from TurboTax worked fine, but not 100% was imported. I expected that.I had some issues loading the H&R Block CD onto my computer, but managed to get it done. Best I could tell, it was an H&R Block software issue. Not my computer. I never had that issue with TurboTax.The one issue I see is that one needs to be very aware of the State forms/schedules that H&R supports. I've needed WI Schedule U in the past. H&R doesn't have it. TurboTax at least has the form, and fills it out, even though it doesn't support e-filing it.In short, one still needs to know something about doing Federal/State taxes to make sure the software is doing it correctly. My preliminary findings are that TurboTax is still the better software. I just couldn't justify Intuit's price increases for Tax Year 2014.

My original review of HR Block Deluxe was rated by me with 2-stars. However the main reason for this low review was the program's inability to import TurboTax data. This occurred with computers running Windows XP. However, the latest updates have now fixed this problem and not only do the TurboTax data files transfer effortlessly, HR Block's program works as well as TurboTax.As it is with other former TurboTax users, I switched to HR Block to give it a trial run. My first impressions are that it is an easy program to use, and the interface and presentation is slight different than TurboTax, it basically does the same job by taking your through a series of interview questions. The overall program seems more streamlined and data entry goes faster after you get used to the system.And of course, HR Block as all the missing forms that were formerly left out of TT Deluxe. After doing a side-by-side comparison of the two programs, and after the initial jitters as to whether or not I would like HR Block's product, my personal conclusion is that I like HR Block and can safely say that I'll be a customer next year too, if HR Block doesn't self-destruct like Intuit did this year.As to why I gave this program 4-stars instead of 5, this basically has to do with the slowness of HR Block addressing or even admitting that there was a problem with the importing of TurboTax data. The HR Block forums finally did address the issue and notified its customers that a fix was on the way, but it took way too long to quell the concerns of customers who recently switched to its software.Customer service reps didn't have a clue to what was happening with this bug, and most of the time didn't even realize there was a problem. All they basically said was, "Gee, we're sorry. But call tech support for help." This didn't do any good as these guys just said to reinstall the software, which didn't work of course.But in-spite of all the bumps in the road, HR Block Deluxe came through and proved itself to be a worthy opponent to Intuit's product. As far as the refund numbers from TurboTax and HR Block, the difference was a matter of a few dollars, with HR Block erring on the side of caution.

I've been a loyal TurboTax guy since 1998 and was also a Quicken fan. I abandoned Quicken a few years ago when it became too expensive and bloated with features I didn't need. TTax worked well but it too grew more expensive. When Intuit raised the price and then dropped some of the key forms from the Deluxe version, I went to H&R Block's software, and so far, I'm pleased. HRB software is marginally less "slick" than TTax but for my relatively simple returns that's OK. I have not completed and filed yet but when I do I'll update my review. I'm happy with HRB at this time and think I made a sensible choice. I'd recommend the HRB software, just keep in mind that my tax situation is fairly simple.

I used to be a Turbo Tax loyal customer. I would buy the product every year without fail until I learned that this year they changed the features of each product but not the product name. So In order to get the features that you need you have to upgrade to a much more expensive product. Why did they mess with a good product I do not know but I do not have the time to figure out what I need from year to year so I have switched to HR Block. So far so good .Bye bye Turbo Tax.

Haven't finished return but so far does everything Turbo Tax did and seems easy to work with. Don't know about downloading as have always done it manually that way I figure it has a better chance of being correct. I'm pretty sure I won't go back to Turbo Tax, the program is fine but Intuit just too difficult to deal with and I am tired of trying. A few years ago they pulled something else and I switched to H & R Block that year also. I have used both Turbo Tax and Quicken for many years but am not up grading Quicken anymore either. It is not the best program and often has glitches. I use the old program as a register and fine for that. I just cannot under stand Intuit as they should be getting better year to year,but they don't, just look at the stars they mostly get and the confidence gets worse every year. I have just washed my hands on their products.

I was furious at TurboTax for their underhanded way of trying to gouge their customers with the changes they incorporated in their new version and decided to give H&R Block a try even after TurboTax changed their policy. I've used TurboTax for almost 2 decades and have noticed how they've steadily tried gouging customers over the years by raising the price of the software and additional state returns (from $20 to $40 per state). Unfortunately, I was not impressed by the H&R Block software - it made me manually calculate certain areas that TurboTax automatically calculated. The H&R Block interface seemed clunky and did not flow smoothly like that of TurboTax. As for additional sate returns, H&R Block charges the same as TurboTax so there's no difference there - they get you where they can. I'll probably go back to TurboTax for my 2015 filing as long as they don't try to gouge me again with additional changes.

I moved from Turbotax this year with removal of features(since restored by Turbotax after thousands of customer complaints) and increased state filing costs. This is a good product with some nice features. However, there are two major drawbacks: support delays and product bugs. First support, I called in January with a question after a form locked up on me. I couldn't edit it. It took 3 days for a return call. Support person was very polite and apologetic for delay. In March, the final check came up clean but when I tried to e-file it told me I had not filled in my address on a 1099 form (It was imported and was on the worksheet). Chat lets you know that they are busy but someone will be with you soon. After 45+ minutes, I gave up. They don't give you an expected wait time like most chats. I wound up deleting the form, importing it again, passed the federal check and then gave me a must fix error trying to efile. The error took me back to part of the form but my entry kept coming back as wrong. Ultimately, I went into the forms mode. Updated the address (it was already there) and saved it. This time it passed both error checks.So my experienced is mixed. Better price than Turbotax for filing but definitely not as refined a product. Not sure what I will do next year as Turbotax has capitulated to users and restored capability to Deluxe version.

I bought this because, like many others, I've grown tired of Intuit's shenanigans with TurboTax Deluxe. This seemed like the best alternative.Well, it works--sorta. It's far less easy to use than TurboTax. It imported my 1099s from E-TRADE, but got a lot of the numbers wrong. Raymond James wasn't even on the import list, so I had to enter all 1099 information by hand. Not a big deal for 1099-INT and 1099-DIV, but a serious hassle for 1099-B.This program doesn't have the boxes you can open for many of the dollar values that allow you to enter multiple values (like prescription costs and dates) and sums them for you in the box on the form. I really liked that feature.It has "back" buttons that often don't really go back. Many of its explanations for what you're supposed to enter or boxes you're supposed to check are vague.What it *does* do are schedules C, D, E, and K-1 which Intuit decided to hold for ransom this year. Sure, they say they'll be back in next year's version, but at what cost? I'll probably use H&R Block software again next year. It was painful to use, but it got the job done.----Update: after fudging with it some more, it turns out you *can* enter itemized lists for things like medical expenses by right-clicking in the box. Too late for me, but maybe this will help someone else.

I've been a loyal Turbo Tax user for what looks like 19 years, and Personal Tax Edge three years before that. After reading the reviews about the Sch C issues with Turbo Tax Deluxe I decided to make the switch to HRB. I was a little concerned since the negative reviews were coming out in December, well before people usually file taxes. I suspect HRB trolls. I might have been right.Between the two, I still prefer the interface of the Turbo Tax. And frankly, HRB didn't handle the Sch C very good. It didn't ask the right questions, especially with inventory value. I had to manually fill out much of Sch C manually anyways ... after I thankfully realized it was incorrect (the $13K business loss was a clue).My personal taxes are stupid simple, and the HRB package did just fine. I don't know how it would handle more complicated tax situations. Also, fortunately, my side business is also pretty simple. Bottom line, except for the Sch C fail, the software did the trick.

After reading poor reviews for Turbotax Deluxe that I had been using for years, changed to H&R Block Deluxe for less money, ordering the PC DVD version. Loading into DVD drive of Windows 7 Professional PC, A window appears during DVD spin after placing in DVD drive:"tcauto.exe – Application ErrorThe application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000005). Click OK to close the application.next, clicked on DVD in My Computer, HRBlock window popped up, clicked Install H&R Block button. Got new window saying software did not install correctly with retry button. I tried this several times and got nowhere, even rebooted PC to no avail.Sitting there frustrated, up pops a new window Program Compatibility Assistant window saying:Windows detected that this program did not run correctlyTo try to fix the program, Windows has applied compatability settings to this program. Windows will use these settings the next time you run this program.If you noticed this program didn’t run correctly, try running the program again. Program: HR Block 2014 Publisher: HR Block Location: D:\tcauto.exeClicked the retry button again and the program installed cleanly. So far so good with initial foray into the software, will update later. Check other reviews for ideas on how to overcome this inexcusable chronic installation problem with this software.

STRIKE 1: As others have mentioned, being a Windows 8.1 user, it gave me an installation error when loading from the CD. Just need to access the "installers" folder and start the program from the file within.STRIKE 2: During the install process, there was a notification that an icon would be created on the desktop. That didn't happen.As for the 3rd strike, that'll be based on the performance of the program which will have to wait until I complete my first return. Required updates were estimated to be available 1/9, so I'll update this post once that happens.Update: As promised, 1/9 update was made available on time. A couple days later the Calif. state was available and downloaded without incident.Imported 5 former TT returns successfully as well.

I switched this year from TurboTax for the same reason as everyone else - but was disappointed. Its much harder to navigate to different sections, or to forms (e.g. you can only open 1 form at a time; they don't link to each other, etc.) or to return to exactly where you were up to. When opening supporting info, you have to know which line you are supporting, and the lines are sometimes misidentified in the list. The options to print out or save for your records are limited. The help is not as clear as Turbo Tax etc. All in all, its not as user-friendly.On top of all this, the program insisted on my including an explanatory statement that TT never required (and the IRS never complained about its absence). Since the program does not include explanatory statements, I had to type one up separately, so the program did not let me e-file. Then, it did not let me e-file my state returns (including a NY return, which legally must be e-filed) because I had not e-filed the Federal return. So much for the free e-files included in the package.

I purchased this as a result of the 2014 Turbo Tax debacle, and I am a 20 year user of TurboTax. I was happy to buy this seeming replacement product for less money. However, this is clearly another case of "you get what you pay for," and assuming TurboTax makes good on their promise to return to their previous packaging, I'll be going back to TT next year.Basically, I felt like I was fighting with the application all the way through. While it supports the usual "interview" style of return preparation, the implementation of the application itself was less than ideal. Having been in the commercial software business for several decades, I recognized evidence of limited design, implementation, and testing. This occurs when management deems the product to be "good enough" and decides not to spend any additional money on smoothing the rough edges and finding bugs. For all you might want to say about TurboTax,, their product is definitely a cut above this one in terms of polish, reliability, and ease of use.For example, one of the main reasons I use tax software is for the ability to import my Schedule D investment information. I'm not exactly Warren Buffet, but who wants to hand-type all that stuff? The H&R software claimed that my log-in credentials for my brokerage account were not valid, even though I could log in to the account in another tab in the same browser session. Checking the H&R website, I found that a number of people were having this same problem, and an H&R Block tech rep posted an acknowledgement of the issue..After a few days, H&R apparently fixed this issue, although they did not make any public post of the fix in the thread where it was being discussed. However, the import did not work correctly for me. When I started the return, I brought over my last year's tax info from TT, so my two brokerage accounts were shown in the H&R return. After importing, the program created something like 6-8 new brokerage accounts in the return, scattering info from the import among them. I deleted all the accounts and then re-imported. This time, it correctly created the two accounts, but a few odds and ends of info did not make it through he import, requiring me to go through each account line by line to verify the data (which was virtually the same as having entered it myself manually). Fortunately, the gain and loss reports imported correctly (as far as I can tell) and that is the biggest pain, so I was happy about that.I was also very frustrated with the mechanism for reporting non-cash charity donations. The process was extremely clunky at first glance, although it turned out there was a streamlined way to do it, but you had to find that out for yourself. Also, the program was quite buggy in this area, as entered information was not saved in some cases, and other anomalies cropped up.I experienced several other instances of less-than-intuitive behavior, the most memorable being around printing my return. I eventually got the job done and the return filed, but as I said, I felt like the application had been working against me throughout the process.Next year - Back to TurboTax!

Original: After loading all of my tax information and reviewing it multiple times I tried to EFile. First, I didn't see any obvious way to Efile unless I agreed to their gift card program. Fine... no harm done in agreeing to get a gift card with some of my tax return. Then... After agreeing to the gift cards and entering banking and last year's AGI and a credit card to pay $19.95 for the state Efile, I hit "send". After a few minutes I got an "SSL Read" error. I spend the next four hours trying to solve that. First I called H&R Block... the message was to call back during business hours... which were not listed. I'm doing my taxes on a Saturday night because that's the only time I have to do them and now I have to call them while I'm at work on Monday? I hope they won't want me in front of my computer. Next, I Googled for a solution and found several. Many solutions offered required disabling my firewall and anti-virus software... WHAT... I have to make my computer totally vulnerable while working with my taxes, my SSN, my birthdate, my address and phone number and where I work and what I earn all so I can pay for the privilege of getting my return filed cheaper than using a competing product? Well, I tried all that multiple times and it didn't work either. I may run over to an actual H&R Block office tomorrow (Sunday-if they're open) to see if they'll help. If they do, then I'll update my review and stars. I used Turbo Tax for many years without any problems and only switched to save a few dollars. At this point, I can say saving a few dollars was not worth wasting a whole Saturday night.Update: One day later. I tried efiling again and it worked tonight. I have no explanation for why it didn't during hours of trying last night. I had a scare on my credit card when I went online to view my transactions and saw three pending charges from my unsuccessful efiling attempts (I tried about six or seven times,but was charged during three of them). I called the credit card company and they assured me H&R Block was not following through with those pending charges and they won't be on my bill. Overall this was a stressful tax season with Turbo Tax taking schedules out of the Deluxe version, charging more for them as part of the Premier version and then H&R having their software "buggy". If Turbo Tax puts the schedules back into the Deluxe version without ratcheting the price up, I'll probably go back to them, but I'll wait until March again next year and see what the public likes best and go with that. With the efiling working today I've added a star to my original one star to make it two stars. The stress was really not appreciated.

Since TurboTax raised its price so much this year, I decided to try this for one year, and it's not worth the trouble. It's not as user-friendly as TurboTax, and I was never able to establish the Internet connection, which means I will need to print and mail my return the old-fashioned way. I guess you get what you pay for--in this case I did not.

As a former Turbo Tax user, I was disappointed. I liked the lower price, but found the program overall much less user-friendly and much easier to make errors with. The HR Block software kept trying to get me to complete a Mortgage Tax Credit form I was not eligible for and finally had to manually delete myself. It came with a free state return, but I was so unconfident in the software by the time I got to the state return that I decided to manually do it myself on paper and make sure it was right. Overall, not terrible, but I would not purchase again.

I have a love/hate relationship with H&R Block Tax Software Packages over the years. While I certainly expect some difficulties in installing the software, this years' Deluxe Edition just would not install despite of several attempts, including H&R Block's Customer Support Solutions. Essentially, you have to shut down all programs, via MSCONFIG, and run the install program. All I could ever get was the intro message that tells me it was going to install the program and then it would be followed by the message that the program did not install properly. UGH. Sending it back. Good luck to my fellow Block users. You would think that an annual program, like H&R Block Tax Software, could be written that installs without incident by now.*** UPDATE ** *** UPDATE ***I am somewhat stubborn and curious as to why I could not get this program to work and, just for the heck of it, I decided to go and try a different executable file. I found it in the "Installers" directory. From there "H&R Block.." executable file shows up: simply make sure that it is highlighted and hit ENTER. The program appears to have fully installed but the first update is not until January 8th. If you are stuck like I was, try this approach, maybe it will work for you too. I still resent having to work so hard to install this program but now I do not have to return it back to Amazon. At least I do not think I will have to. Good luck!

I am one of the people caught in TurboTax's removal of forms from their Deluxe version, so I bought this version of H&R Block tax software. I filled out the interview portion of both TurboTax Deluxe (upgraded to Premium by Intuit) and H&R Block. The result was different numbers produced by the two tax software. I then needed to trouble-shoot the numerous numbers that were different. Trouble-shooting in TurboTax was easy because most cells have either a magnifying glass to show the source of the number in that cell, or I can right-click and see the source of the number. Unfortunately most of the cells in H&R Block do not have any was of determining the source.Wow, I couldn't believe that. I called the H&R Block customer service phone number and waited 35 minutes on hold, without knowing how many people were ahead of me. The representative I talked with didn't know how to show the source of numbers in cells, so she requested a supervisor. About ten minutes later the supervisor came onto the phone and told me there isn't any way to determine the specific source of the number. Only the general area of the interview process is sometimes known, but not any specific numbers or cells from other forms.This leaves me with not being able to determine the reason for the difference in numbers between the two tax software. After using TurboTax for years, and being able to go back to the source, I can't imagine using H&R Block tax software in the future and not being able to question or trouble-shoot the numbers I see. This is a HUGE problem. If a number doesn't look reasonable, I need to be able to determine why the number is the value that is shown, and I can't do that in H&R Block tax software ( a few cells, yes, but not for most cells).Comparison of TurboTax and H&R BlockImporting from TurboTax 2013: TurboTax: Smoothly H&R Block: SmoothlyImporting Brokerage accounts: TurboTax: Accounts can be de-selected for importing, avoiding duplicating of some spouse accounts. H&R Block: Accounts cannot be de-selected for importing. Some spouse accounts duplicate the tax payer accounts, resulting in some accounts being shown twice.Schedule A, medical insurance: TurboTax: Medicare, Part B, is included automatically H&R Block: Medicare, Part B, must be manually addedSchedule A, long term care insurance: TurboTax: Part of the interview process, and a separate line in the worksheet. H&R Block: No question or line. Must be manually added to the medical insurance.Schedule A, line 5: local income taxes or sales tax: TurboTax: TT automatically selected the higher amount. H&R Block: The user needs to check one box, then the other, to determine the higher amount.Customer service phone support: H&R Block: 800-472-5625. No indication of how long the wait will be, to speak with someone.Customer service web chat: H&R Block: White screens in Chrome, Internet Explorer, and FireFox.

Disappointing at best.Okay, no interview. But 2 semesters of Income Tax Accounting in paralegal courses gets me through that.TWO MAJOR issues slowing down filing!!1. Parent no insurance; child has insurance through other parent. All well and good. The software says it's posting the $95 tax penalty and all is well and good. UNTIL you get to the final REVIEW!! Now it's "wait for the next update" (Feb. 12th) for a form. WTH? Over $5K sitting there and I have to wait??2. Indiana. Renter's Deduction. All well and good until you try to put in the required address of the landlord. Fourteen character spaces only!! So, once you put in five street numbers, space, S (for south), space, you have used up eight!! Try to put any medium to long street name in there!!In this case, "Bloomington St." No really acceptable abbreviation without Indiana either rejecting ($600+) or auditing.A 15 minute wait at CSR online chat led to another 20 minutes with a fellow that had "to check" several times. The final answer: He forwarded the issue and it "may be fixed" in the next update. Again, Feb. 12th.In the mean time, the Indiana AG went on TV Friday saying file now to avoid fraudulent claims against your tax account. Oh, great!!TurboTax, with their sales down this year because of their software changing antics, now says they will return to their old system next year Woo-hoo!!7PM EST- Update:Plowing through all the same info in OLT.com let me file state only. Free. The upside is it allowed filing Indiana only without trying to re-file Fed, which never would have worked. So, a longer solution workwise, but faster refund.***UPDATE** 13Feb2015--With all of the promise of "escalation" of the Indiana problem, and fix next update (2/12/15), it didn't happen. When I opened the software to allow it to get updates (just curious now), the Indiana updates section in the box says, "NOTHING PLANNED." That's enough for me! ZERO STARS if I could. I got an e-mail to call them to "discuss the problem."TURBO TAX update!! TurboTax Deluxe now does a MAJOR UPDATE. It brings back the interview and forms they took away. If you need one of the old forms they moved to Premier, it updates to Premier FREE. If you bought Premier and now would not have needed it with the old Deluxe, you get a refund.FINALLY, someone listens to the user base. It looks as though withholding the mighty $$$ from a company gets their attention!!

So far I dislike this tax software. It is not as friendly and thorough and clear as TurboTax. I switched due to all the bad press TurboTax received this year, but am finding H&R pretty poor so far. I had a problem with the software filling out form 1095-A the Health Insurance Marketplace Statement. Tried to "Chat" which required me starting at #74 and about 45 minutes later getting someone. After at least half an hour, after the rep asking me "is that for form 8059?" I stated my problem clearly, even told him where he could find the form. After 30 minutes I requested he find someone familiar with the form. 45 minutes after chatting with that rep, I still had no help. After two hours, I needed a break and sent a long email today. Hopefully I will get some assistance, or the Help Support area suggests I make an appointment with an H&R office and see if they can help me. How convenient is that!

I have used TurboTax for years, and never had any serious problems. When TT decided to play games with their pricing this year, I thought I'd give H & R Block a try, based on a number of favorable reviews posted with Amazon. Well, shame on me! In my opinion, TT is far superior to H&RBs 2014 edition. TT is easier to work with, perhaps because of my many years experience with it? But, there's a glitch in H&RBs program with regard to properly categorizing retirement income. Their telephone help line couldn't help me, so they referred me to an online chat person. Suffice it to say, my seventeen month old great granddaughter would have been more helpful and knowledgeable. Now they've got some "level 2" specialist looking into the problem. Next year it's back to TT, no matter what the price!!AMAZON NEEDS A "ZERO" STAR CATEGORY FOR THIS PRODUCT!! ISSUES ABOVE WERE NRVER RESOLVED DESPITE BEING REFERRED TO THEIR "SPECIALISTS". SERVICE NON EXISTENT. ON HOLD FOR MORE THAN TWO HOURS TRYING TO REACH DEPARTMENT THAT EMAILED ME WITH "SPECIAL" NUMBER FOR "BETTER" SERVICE TO RESOLVE PROBLEM. NEVER DID GET THROUGH TO THEM. TURBOTAX HAS RESOVLVED THEIR PRODUCT ISSUES, SO I AM RETURNING THE H&RBLOCK JUNK FOR CREDIT AND WILL GO BACK TO TT. I AN GETTING TOO OLD FOR THIS KIND OF AGGRAVATION!

bought H&R because of Intuit's initial price gouging. initially was very happy with H&R because it imported last years data from TT and also imported some of this year's tax information from Quicken. however, I get K-1's. H&R does an outstanding job in screwing up how some of the reported items are handled. Chatted with H&R tech rep and all she could tell be to do was to talk to one of their tax advisors. I had already spelled out in detail some of the major issue in the chat so one would thing they could forward it to their technical department without me having to call someone else. there are multiple issues with their k-1 input screen. Among the issues certain input lines on the k-1 screen are not being carried to the proper place on the return. Losses from publicly traded partnerships that were not disposed of were being used to offset passive income from non-publicly traded partnerships. this is wrong but can save a hell of a lot of tax. Would the IRS catch this - don't know and don't want to find out. For errors in preparing the return -2 For the reps unwillingness or inability to forward the issues to a department that would look in to them -2 stars. so if you have a partnership (and maybe s-corporation) reporting on your tax return, don't hold your breath that H&R will get it right. By comparison I had similar k-1's in 2013 and used Turbo Tax. I had none of the issues i'm having with H&R (as a matter of fact i had absolutely no issues with how TT handled the k-1 input - everything ended up in the right place and everything was correctly reported). so I'm going to bite the bullet and switch back. as for people reading this review, if you don't have k-1's to deal with you might be ok. But the way I look at it, if H&R screws up royally in this area (this area of tax reporting has been around for decades - so has H&R been misreporting for decades), who knows what other areas they may be mishandling. I work for a accounting firm that prepares individual's tax returns. I discussed the issues with several tax partners and they all agreed that H&R was in error. Good luck to H&R users.

MY ORIGINAL REVIEW: Received my HRB2014 Deluxe on CD today, after previously giving TurboTax NoLongerDeluxe2014 the benefit of the doubt (despite the horrendous reviews, stupidly) and discovering that the program refused to install after multiple attempts. Sent it back to Amazon in disgust and returned to HRBlock which I had used back in the day when it was called TaxCut.I was a tad apprehensive, because the reason I initially switched to TT was because TaxCut had become buggy and inaccurate. But hey, redemption is always possible.. yes? This version installed properly, was able to import my last year's TTax return, easy to navigate and user-friendly, IMHO. I appreciated the fact that it only asked me once (early on) whether I would like to upgrade to Premium; once I had clicked "No Thanks", the program did not bother me about it again -- unlike TTax which has a habit of repeatedly asking. As a result, I'm very happy that I "came back home" to the H&R Block product.UPDATED REVIEW as of FEB 5th 2015:Well, I am peeved beyond belief because guess what? Apparantly the 2014 product gets progressively buggy! I didn't realize this upon receipt in December because the program indicated that the first available update wasn't due until Jan 9th. Okay...no problem. So on Jan 12th I checked for updates and it said a Federal one was available. No state yet, even though I live in NY and they are usually early in releasing. The update APPEARED to install itself... however, the next time I opened the program about a week later, it still indicated "next update Jan 9th", that a Federal one was available but no state. So I tried again. It appeared to install but then at the end the download bar rolled itself back. No error message though. Hmmm. (oh, and no State yet)Over the past 2 weeks I've tried several times to update, and the same thing happens. I just checked some of the one- and two-star reviews and see that other users are having the same problem. Sometimes (after spending hours on hold with non-helpful HRB support) it is resolved by getting a free-download code (I bought mine on CD as I always do) but sometimes now. One user had to turn off his firewall in order to download updates or to e-file!! Sorry but that is NOT gonna happen here. I tried one last time and now the blasted thing stops working even before it gets halfway through trying to (supposedly) update. Of course it's too late for me to return the software to Amazon, because it's past the 30-day window.At this point I'm totally disgusted (again) with HR BLock and am going to do my taxes this year the oldfashioned way: with a printed-out form, a calculator, and a pen. I normally don't e-file and so that's no big deal. But I am really p.o.'d about having spent 40 bucks for something that I (again) can't trust to do its job correctly. Good thing my taxes aren't too complex anymore.Guess what I'll be buying next year? TurboTax. I will never again throw any more $ toward an HRB product. Unbelieveable. This should not be rocket science, folks.