When I installed and ran this software, I was told the "Interview was missing" for my 1120S. That's nice. It immediately reminded me of when I installed Doom 3 and was told "3D Rendering Engine Missing," or when I bought Microsoft Word and got the message "Fonts and Printer Drivers Missing."
I did what Tax Cut told me to do to connect and update my forms and the stupid thing kept hanging at 4% of download. Maybe they were having server trouble, but I'm not a patient man, especially when I have all my forms and files laid out and I'm ready to do my taxes NOW.
So I went and got TurboTax. The difference was night and day. TurboTax is a well-designed, highly polished and refined product. It updated to the current version with no problems. By contrast, from the moment that first install dialog popped up, Tax Cut for business reeked of shoddiness, as if it were rushed out the door. (Even the dialog boxes looked unprofessional and strangely misaligned.)
I used Tax Cut in 2002 and 2003 but after this experience I never will again. Maybe the guts--the tax code itself--are a bit more robust than TurboTax, but if I can't get the thing to work at all then what difference does it make? The finer points of deductions are not a great concern to me. If they were, I'd have an accountant. Come tax time, I just want a program that works. TurboTax worked. Tax Cut didn't. |
This is the second year I have used TaxCut for both my personal and small business returns. I switched from TurboTax when they started using their copy protection stuff that seemed to give every user a nightmare. Well, all I can say is, there must be two totally different software development teams working on TaxCut programs, because, while TaxCut personal is a fine program, TaxCut for business is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!
Where do I start? First, it cannot even import data from files the 2003 version created. When I tried, it hung every time, eventually forcing me to re-install the entire software package. The error log it generated showed dozens of import errors. Apparently they changed number formats (floating point etc.) and the 2004 version can't handle it. The error log also says to contact the development team but gives no way to do that. And yes, I did update the program from the web before I started.
Ok, so now I'm entering everything by hand. Like Turbo Tax, it has an interview feature, but unlike TurboTax, the interview interface is dreadfully inconsistent. Sometimes you enter info in the interview feature and hit return on your keyboard and the cursor moves to the next field, and sometimes it moves the cursor to the form! Sometimes you can enter data in interview format, sometimes you have to enter it onto the form itself. Were the programmers simply too lazy to write that feature for each page? There is simply no logical reason to make me bounce back and forth between methods!
Next, as expected, the interview has many questions where you answer yes or no if you are elegible or required to fill out certain info. However, even if you answer NO, it still takes you to those pages! Oh but of course, that only happens sometimes, other times it DOES skip the pages!
I also purchased the state business componenet for TaxCut. Despite reporting that it loaded successfully, TaxCut professional didn't seem to know the state version was there! Of course, it was more than happy to display (right next to the "help" button)a link to BUY the state version!
Oh but wait, if you exit the interview mode, and click on "go", (not the logical tab in my opinion, which would be "FORMS"), you see a list (under "my forms") of all your forms, and golly, if the state forms aren't there! Of course, you can also add forms to your return under the forms tab. Careful, as you poke around trying to find the form you thought you added to your return, you may add the form again from the "forms" tab. The program, instead of taking you to the form you added, will instead add another copy of the same form, which you can later NOT delete from your return. I know there may be circumstances where you DO want a second copy of the form, but mostly you don't. Would it be too much for the "forms" section to ask if you want a new copy or to go to the one you already added?
Now, you'd expect, since the main program doesn't appear to know the state forms are there (or maybe it does ?!?!) you would have to enter data into the state forms by hand, but it's not that simple! SOME forms have SOME data automatically transferred in them, SOME forms have NONE!
And what if you need help? The help link has a simple FAQ that has a very minimal few lines then refers you to the IRS instructions. Well if the IRS instructions made any sense, I wouldn't be using a help section of a tax program. Especially one written by TAX EXPERTS!
I could go on and on, but since I've just spent an ENTIRE DAY doing these taxes, I'm burned out. FYI, I run a SIMPLE small business, I can't imagine what kind of nightmare this would be for a business with inventory, and employees etc.
Please, please, please, stay as far away from this program as possible. I'm saying this for your own good.
I would give this 0 stars if Amazon would let me. |
Expedited Available
