H&R Block Tax Software now available

[bedraggled]

Question, please.

I have been doing my returns by hand for 42 years. I tried Turbo Tax ten years ago and my hand-compiled returns gave me better, accurate numbers.

Vinny suggests H & R Block software is much better. I had a chat several years back with a veteran tax preparer who suggested I had an advantage as ‘hand’ preparation can give a person a real sense as to his/her tax situation. In the way that a spider knows the conditions of its web.

I startled my tax prep for 2020 in January, 2019. It is fun and I know where I am regarding my taxes always. My 1099s are always under control.

So, the question: should I bother with software if only for some identity theft/stealing of a refund protection?

Oh, and a “thank you” to WiseOne who advised me that the New York State and New York City fees on my apartment sale were not tax deductible. How right WiseOne was. My but those expenses added up.

[WiseOne]

I think I'm stuck with Turbotax and its auto import feature for one more year because of Lending Club - the complications it adds to Schedule D are beyond imagining. Fortunately now that I've gotten out I could consider something like freetaxusa or Credit Karma after next year.

Totally agree with bedraggled, the layers that Turbotax puts between you and the actual tax forms, which you are not allowed to edit directly, are truly irritating and actually make tax filing harder. Turbotax once made a mistake on a tax form for the backdoor Roth IRA contribution that resulted in an IRS tax letter two years later. I figured out what happened (after a lot of unnecessary angst) and sent in a hand corrected form which solved the problem. Turbotax of course denied that they'd made any such error - even though when I called the IRS, the agent on the line told me that Turbotax resulted in quite a lot of these letters because of that specific issue. None of this would have happened if I'd done the forms myself.

[vnatale]

Question, please.

I have been doing my returns by hand for 42 years. I tried Turbo Tax ten years ago and my hand-compiled returns gave me better, accurate numbers.

Vinny suggests H & R Block software is much better. I had a chat several years back with a veteran tax preparer who suggested I had an advantage as ‘hand’ preparation can give a person a real sense as to his/her tax situation. In the way that a spider knows the conditions of its web.

I startled my tax prep for 2020 in January, 2019. It is fun and I know where I am regarding my taxes always. My 1099s are always under control.

So, the question: should I bother with software if only for some identity theft/stealing of a refund protection?

Oh, and a “thank you” to WiseOne who advised me that the New York State and New York City fees on my apartment sale were not tax deductible. How right WiseOne was. My but those expenses added up.

1) I was not saying that H&R Block was better than TurboTax. I was saying that for the way I want to input tax information (into the forms directly) it was better than one of the online products recommended here.

2) I also somewhat do them by hand. I have created Excel worksheets that replicate the tax returns (and their lines) relevant to me. And, I hand enter all the information into them (on a month-by-month basis for tax planning purposes). That total amounts in those worksheets in all cases agree with the amounts that are in the H&R Block forms. Doing both give me full control of what is appearing in the tax returns created by H&R Block, which are the ones I end up filing. I will research to death and fully understand any tax issue that relates to me.

3) And, I always file paper (never have e-filed) so no identity theft risk for me. Plus, I NEVER get a refund I either arrange to owe if no penalties involved or I apply a "refund" towards next year's taxes.

Vinny

[vnatale]

I think I'm stuck with Turbotax and its auto import feature for one more year because of Lending Club - the complications it adds to Schedule D are beyond imagining. Fortunately now that I've gotten out I could consider something like freetaxusa or Credit Karma after next year.

Totally agree with bedraggled, the layers that Turbotax puts between you and the actual tax forms, which you are not allowed to edit directly, are truly irritating and actually make tax filing harder. Turbotax once made a mistake on a tax form for the backdoor Roth IRA contribution that resulted in an IRS tax letter two years later. I figured out what happened (after a lot of unnecessary angst) and sent in a hand corrected form which solved the problem. Turbotax of course denied that they'd made any such error - even though when I called the IRS, the agent on the line told me that Turbotax resulted in quite a lot of these letters because of that specific issue. None of this would have happened if I'd done the forms myself.

I assisted someone completing his personal tax returns for 2018. He was using TurboTax and it was the first time for me using it in about 20 years. I had been personally exclusively using H&R Block during all that time. There were many times with TurboTax wherein I knew exactly what amount I wanted to appear on a line in a specific tax form and it became quite frustrating to determine out where I was supposed to actually enter that amount.

It seemed that TurboTax has more of an orientation of getting all the information in via the cumbersome interview process as opposed to just entering the information directly into the forms? Seems like the former is oriented towards someone who does not have a good grasp on all the relevant tax issues and tax forms, which in itself is somewhat dangerous for someone self-preparing.

Vinny

[Don]

I've been using this successfully for ~4 years:

https://www.freetaxusa.com/

I used this last year for the first time and was very happy with it.

[vnatale]

About to buy this. And, about the lowest price I've paid for it in a long time. Maybe ever.

Vinny

H&R Block.JPG (31.43 KiB) Viewed 7018 times

[vnatale]

And, if you go here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YH24MYL/?c ... _lig_dp_it

You will be able to see this comparison between their different tax products.

Vinny

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[vnatale]

For those of you interested in how easy it is to input information into the H&R Block program?

Earlier this afternoon I'd first updated my federal and state tax returns in my Excel worksheets based upon my information for 2019 in Quicken plus some estimates.

Using that information in the worksheets it took me less than 1/2 hour to get all the information into the H&R Block software with results almost identical to my worksheet. When I'm finalizing a return I get them to be identical but for my tax planning purposes which required the use of estimates getting close was good enough. T

The process of matching the software results to my Excel worksheets did exactly what I wanted it to do. The software reminded me of some things I'd not yet updated in my Excel worksheets.

The tax forms are not due to be updated until the 1st week of January 2020. Therefore several of them were incomplete. But because I had my completed Excel worksheets I knew what was supposed to go where: I overrode and made my entries for the forms which did not yet have their supporting worksheets available.

I entered a W-2, Schedule C information (including mileage for vehicle), several individual 1099's for both interest and dividends.

For decades I have been doing the standard deduction one year and then doing two years of deduction the next year to itemize. This year was the year to use the standard deduction, which led to less inputting.

All relevant information from last year's return imported smoothly, saving any of the repetitive type inputting.

Though it can import information from various sources, such as Quicken, I prefer to enter all my information by hand into the software. Really not that much to input.

As I said a while ago, I did use Turbo Tax 2018 in assisting someone with his return. And, though I could not tell if it was because I'd not used it for over 20 years, but the inputting experience was nowhere as easy as this was tonight. Much easier to navigate to where you actually have to do the basic inputting so it all eventually flows to the proper lines on the various forms.

Vinny

[Kbg]

How do people like H&RB? I've used TurboTax forever, but the last two years have not been pleasant experiences. Last year was really bad. TT decided to dump data/crash on my final save/transmit. Luckily I had a hard copy but this year I have to hand jam a bunch of data that was lost...so it's a good year to change if I need to.

[shekels]

How do people like H&RB? I've used TurboTax forever, but the last two years have not been pleasant experiences. Last year was really bad. TT decided to dump data/crash on my final save/transmit. Luckily I had a hard copy but this year I have to hand jam a bunch of data that was lost...so it's a good year to change if I need to.

I have used both TTax and HRBlock. I like them both for simplicity compared to doing taxes by hand .
The thing is, that both the software programs get updated and can become entirely different from year to year.
So last year it was HRBlock for me.
TTax had issues with some of their forms being left out of different versions that people had been using for years.

[vnatale]

How do people like H&RB? I've used TurboTax forever, but the last two years have not been pleasant experiences. Last year was really bad. TT decided to dump data/crash on my final save/transmit. Luckily I had a hard copy but this year I have to hand jam a bunch of data that was lost...so it's a good year to change if I need to.

I've been using it for over 20 years now. All my opinions regarding it are in the prior posts I have made in this topic.

Vinny

[Kbg]

Downloaded...great coupon

[dualstow]

Not sure if this has been mentioned:

IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete With TurboTax
https://www.propublica.org/article/irs- ... h-turbotax

[InsuranceGuy]

[deleted]

[vnatale]

I started this topic and am going to do a slight deviation.

For completing an 1120S federal plus state returns is TurboTax the only choice? That is what I used to always use in the 90s. And, used it again helping someone the last year or so. I seemed to remember from the 90s that H&R Block business return software was quite weak in comparison and may not have had had state return capabilities.

Vinny

[vnatale]

I use an accountant for my Fed & IL 1120S. That's just way too complicated to do myself, even with software.

I am completely capable of doing both.

I used to do them (and the owner's personal returns) for the company I was working for during the 90s. Ernst & Young (Big 4) was our outside accountants. I'd call them to ask any questions while I was preparing all the returns in Turbo Tax. I'd mail a paper copy to them. They wouldn't even bother putting it into their system and printing their own copy. Instead, they'd just put what I sent to them in a binder, sign it, and then charge us $4,000!

I don't want to sign the returns for a current business to which I am its financial consultant. The current accounting firm is charging way too much for the little work that they have to do in the way I present the information to them. Last year I gave them filled in PDF tax forms for the 1120S and they still charged a ton.

I'm trying to go the next step to completely fill out the returns in Turbo Tax and give it to them so it's only a matter of them inputting it into their system with no thought required. I'm also looking at two other options to produce, sign, file the returns. For me it's really a commodity type thing. They are not going to add much (if any value) to the corporate returns above what I already know. They do have some value in the personal return area but not all that much given the overall simplicity of the owner's returns.

Vinny

[Kbg]

I ran through my initial 2019 tax return using H&R.

I like it's simplicity and GUI over TurboTax. However, I was quite surprised at the lack of internal/software tax guidance and background for various issues as compared to TT. It seems to me they would really like you to have to go see an H&R person.

I found myself on the TurboTax site quite a bit...

I have several things that carry over multiple years and I will definitely be paying attention to H&Rs internal worksheets. If they don't do a good job on this aspect of my personal situation I think 2019 will be it for me.

[vnatale]

I ran through my initial 2019 tax return using H&R.

I like it's simplicity and GUI over TurboTax. However, I was quite surprised at the lack of internal/software tax guidance and background for various issues as compared to TT. It seems to me they would really like you to have to go see an H&R person.

I found myself on the TurboTax site quite a bit...

I have several things that carry over multiple years and I will definitely be paying attention to H&Rs internal worksheets. If they don't do a good job on this aspect of my personal situation I think 2019 will be it for me.

I bought the H&R Block Business software last weekend so as to complete Sub S corporate returns for both Federal and Massachusetts. It costs less than $60 (including sales taxes) for both.

I'd last used their business product 25 years ago.

There were tons of bad reviews of the product on Amazon. But I ended being surprised how excellent the product is. I don't have a need for any guidance. I just need a product that allows me to put the numbers on the forms that I know need to be on the forms. I suspect all those bad reviews were from people who actually expected to have a product guide them how to fill out those returns.

And, in comparison to TurboTax on both the personal and business levels, H&R Block seemed far superior in being able to determine where you are actually supposed to enter information so that it properly shows on the correct line on the correct form.

Too often with TurboTax I knew exactly what amount I wanted to enter on what line of what form but I could not determine where I was supposed to enter the amount.

Finally, H&R Block is substantially less expensive for all its products than is TurboTax.

Vinny

[WiseOne]

Honestly, both of these systems create so many problems in the name of preventing you from filling out forms directly. They've essentially tried to build a language layer on top of the tax forms, so instead of learning to understand the forms you have to learn the Turbotax (or HRB) language. prime example: the backdoor Roth contribution. It involves two separate sets of interviews in two completely different sections plus going through the final review step where they figure out that your IRA contribution was nondeductible. It would be infinitely easier just to fill out the tax form by hand.

The one reason I like Turbotax is the ability to import data from W2, banks etc. My ideal system would take care of that, and then lead you through the forms themselves letting you enter numbers directly, perhaps with redirects to worksheets or calculator pages where you can enter collections of items to be added up, plus links to IRS instruction pages or other sources of info, while automating the lines that are data transfers or calculations. Is there a system out there that works like this?

If there is one but without autoimport, that's ok because I could simply use turbotax online to do the importing, then export the data and import it to that system.

[Kriegsspiel]

Honestly, both of these systems create so many problems in the name of preventing you from filling out forms directly. They've essentially tried to build a language layer on top of the tax forms, so instead of learning to understand the forms you have to learn the Turbotax (or HRB) language. prime example: the backdoor Roth contribution. It involves two separate sets of interviews in two completely different sections plus going through the final review step where they figure out that your IRA contribution was nondeductible. It would be infinitely easier just to fill out the tax form by hand.

Good to know! I'm doing my first Roth IRA conversion for tax year 2019 and I was poking through TurboTax today looking for how to report it.

[vnatale]

Honestly, both of these systems create so many problems in the name of preventing you from filling out forms directly. They've essentially tried to build a language layer on top of the tax forms, so instead of learning to understand the forms you have to learn the Turbotax (or HRB) language. prime example: the backdoor Roth contribution. It involves two separate sets of interviews in two completely different sections plus going through the final review step where they figure out that your IRA contribution was nondeductible. It would be infinitely easier just to fill out the tax form by hand.

The one reason I like Turbotax is the ability to import data from W2, banks etc. My ideal system would take care of that, and then lead you through the forms themselves letting you enter numbers directly, perhaps with redirects to worksheets or calculator pages where you can enter collections of items to be added up, plus links to IRS instruction pages or other sources of info, while automating the lines that are data transfers or calculations. Is there a system out there that works like this?

If there is one but without autoimport, that's ok because I could simply use turbotax online to do the importing, then export the data and import it to that system.

I just used H&R Block to complete someone else's return. I NEVER use the interview process. I clicked on where I wanted the amounts to appear on the return. And, if it was not possible to directly enter the amounts on that line I chose the "Jump to Related" option to bring me to where I was to enter the information. Many times it is like this so that there is only ONE point of entry for a piece of information which then allows that piece of information to properly flow to all other places in the return that it appears.

I've never tried an import of yearly tax information into H&R Block software. It's not that time consuming to enter all the information by hand, especially when you've imported last year's return into this year's return, thereby filling it all the basic information on you and information returns (W-2's, 1099's) that are the same as the prior year.

I think your dream process may be a dream. Filling out a tax return is not all that simple a process and it is not possible to create tax software that could fathom your particular situation so as to lead you through all the forms particular to you.

It basically comes down to three options:

1) You give all your information to a tax preparer (who presumably knows what he or she is doing)
2) You know what you are doing, don't have to use the interview process at all, and you enter as much as possible of the information directly into the forms.
3) You need to rely upon the software to fill in your gaps of tax preparation knowledge. Then you have to deal with BOTH having to determine how the forms are supposed to be filled out AND how to get those forms filed out using that software.

I'm basically category #2. I might be a #1 if I really was a #3. Or, I might take it as far as I could and then bring it to a tax preparer to finalize it.



Vinny