TaxCut Platinum 2002

List Price: $39.99 Discount Price: $39.99

Features:

• No more wading through paperwork for hours -- the simple Tax Assistants bring you the financial assistance you need, step-by-step
• Work out the total taxable value on your stock portfolios, options, and capital gains with no trouble
• Find out how you can increase your tax and retirement savings with sound advice from H&R Block and Kiplinger
• Also includes free copies of TaxCut State, E-filing, and a copy of Microsoft Money(after rebate - See below)

Customer Reviews:

Never used Turbo Tax anyway [Posted on 2003-03-20]
Taxcut is easy to use and my return is relatively simple, so I was mostly satisfied with it. Contrary to previous reviews, it does have an interview feature and I did not find that I had to enter the same information repeatedly.

On the downside, the program is full of bugs that range from the amusing (like saying "I see that your spouse also moved this year" when I am filing a single return!) to the scary (like forcing me to enter a value for a mortgage deduction when I do not own a home) I run a small home based business and that seemed to extend Taxcut's capability to the maximum. Taxcut worked fine this year, but if my business grows any larger,I'll switch to something else next year.

Does not live up to TurboTax Deluxe [Posted on 2003-03-21]
Since this is my first year of trying to file US Income Taxes _myself_, I picked TaxCut since I didn't like the TurboTax registration annoyance. I later hat the opportunity to enter my Federal and my California Tax Info on a friend's computer with TurboTax Deluxe and thus was able to compare the Interview process.

My tax situation was very easy except for 3 issues:
1. I had to pay tax due in 2002 for my 2001 State Tax Return
2. I collected foreign dividends, interest and captital gains
3. I payed foreign taxes (on those foreign dividends and
interests) and thus filed form 1116.

So what happend:
1. Knowing on where and how to enter the fact that I payed state
taxes, was a major hassle with TaxCut. The interview process
asked about it at one point, but then you were left alone
to figure out on which of the following screens you had
to enter this information, so that it would properly carry
over to the State tax program. There was nothing in the FAQ,
in any of the help sections or on the website. It took
two emails with customer support to get an answer to this
question.

TurboTax explicitely asked that question in its interview
process and had my enter the amount right away.

2. Neither program provides any support for dealing with foreign
currencies, so you're on your own with the conversion.

3. Form 1116 was another nightmare with TaxCut, which basically
left you to filling out the forms / worksheets by yourself.
TurboTax made it much more easier.

Other issues:
- Changes in the Federal Data did not always carry over
properly to the State Return (i.e. when I deleted info
about Estimated Taxes payed). I only noticed this
when comparing the figures with TurboTax
- I bought the "Platinum" version, but I didn't see any
practical benefit.

At the end of the day both programs calculated the same
figures, however TurboTax' interview progress was much clearer

and mad me much more comfortable.

If TurboTax didn't have that awkward registration scheme I would never use TaxCut again.

Disappointing; about as good as TurboTax was 2-3 years ago [Posted on 2003-03-31]
I switched to TaxCut from TurboTax because reviews said it was as good as TurboTax but without TurboTax's copy protection scheme. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Entering Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) transactions was much more difficult than last year's TurboTax. The capital gains wizard was almost no help. The online instructions and help were much less helpful, and the help had a much poorer index.

Overall, I would say TaxCut 2003 is about as good as TurboTax was 2-3 years ago. But it is not nearly as easy to use as TurboTax was last year. As much as I dislike TurboTax's copy protection scheme, I will go back to TurboTax next year.

Don't use Tax Cut if you have to file an Oregon State return [Posted on 2003-04-15]
Last year I used Turbo Tax and was able to file my state return electronically. This year I switched to Tax Cut and it doesn't support E-filing the Oregon State return. Now, at the last minute, I have to print and file a manual return. This will add about 2 months to the time it takes to get a refund. Next year it's back to Turbo Tax, no matter how bad it is, it's better than Tax Cut.

Very user friendly tax software [Posted on 2003-05-09]
I have used TaxCut for several years now, and really appreciate its convenience and ease of use. The software works like an interview - you answer a list of questions, and when you are done, your tax return is complete. It picks up the data from prior year returns done on TaxCut, so if you use the program year after year, it gets progressively easier and less time-consuming to prepare your taxes. Clear explanations are provided for every entry, potential problem areas are flagged, and your return is compared with average taxpayer returns in your income bracket so you can see if your deductions etc. are out of line with the norm. The state program for my state is also very simple to use. In my opinion, using TaxCut is far simpler and less stressful than either doing taxes by hand or using a tax preparer.

Click here for more details and discount information...