Comments for IRS Tax Return Tips and Tricks

Comment on H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium & Business Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION] by Area Woman

Area Woman — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:15:29 +0000

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

Lame, confusing, lousy software, January 6, 2010

Area Woman (Los Angeles, CA) -

This review is from: H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium & Business Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

This software is apparently designed to be confusing and frustrating so you will give up and go get H&R Block to do your taxes for you. I have been doing my own taxes with consumer software for a number of years but I will never buy this brand again. I will go back to one of the other brands. One major frustration: there is no easy way to print copies of your returns after you have e-filed. You have to follow the prescribed steps and the software won't let you override them.

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Comment on H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium & Business Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION] by JBW

JBW — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:15:43 +0000

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2009 S-Corp Federal Business Interviews Do Not Work as of Jan 8, 2010, January 9, 2010

JBW (Jamestown, NC) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium & Business Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I've used TaxCut's Deluxe or Premium software to do my personal taxes for several years without any complaints. Before that I used Turbo Tax for several years and only switched because TaxCut was less expensive to do the same thing. This year my husband and I started a small business, so I purchased the H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium & Business software. After loading the software, the federal interviews would not run for a corporation (1120/1120S forms and supporting forms).

I waited until Jan 4, checked for updates and had the same problem. So, after calling their customer support center three times, I finally got a support person who told me their business interviews were not yet available and they did not have a tentative date for their availability. The main forms have been approved by the IRS, but H&R Block hasn't finished the interview portion of the software.

I had hope to use the product to complete our W-2 and W-3 forms which are due by Jan 31, 2010. But, now I have no way of knowing whether to return the product since the business portion is inoperable and buy TurboTax, or wait it out and hope the updates are available in time.

I hope this is helpful in reducing anyone else's frustration who might have a small business and want to use this to complete their W-2 forms.

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Comment on H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium & Business Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION] by Linda Day

Linda Day — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:26:07 +0000

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

Lousy business software, just fine for my 1040, January 21, 2010

Linda Day (Texas) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: H&R Block At Home 2009 Premium & Business Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

The section that follows is my first impression of the Business program, generated on January 15. At the end of that, I include my second impression on February 15 of the business program (1120S). I'll include a review of the 1040 portion of this software after I do those taxes. OK, that review is in at the very bottom. I'd rate the 1040 as 4-stars.

Ok, I knew H&R was a little more primitive than TurboTax (which I used for 10 years or so), based on my experience with their personal tax package for 2008 taxes, but it was adequate. So this year I tried the Business software (S corp), the only part of this combo-burrito I've tried so far. It is REALLY primitive:

1. First, don't necessarily expect to be able to make sense of the display! The program may show up on your monitor with the check boxes bearing NO spacial relationship to the actual choices. So you call the help desk, and someone tells you to reset your monitor properties to display 1024x768. Oh and make sure that under "Advanced" the dpi resolution is set to 96. The is the only software I've ever used that couldn't recognize my monitor and display correctly. Massive lameness -- and it took 2 long tech support calls to fix it.

1.5. For a while, tech support thought the software was corrupt. I had registered it but BECAUSE I BOUGHT THE SOFTWARE FROM AMAZON, H&R BLOCK HAD NO RECORD OF MY REGISTRATION. So if the software had actually been bad, they could not have downloaded a clean version -- I would have had to return the box to Amazon for a refund and reorder it!! And the tech support person noted that Amazon would probably not take it back because it had been opened! Be warned -- if you really want this stuff, pay the man and download it from H&R Block.

2. Recognize that tech support people have just been hired and will not really know anything, tho they will be friendly and eager to help. Plan to spend an hour or two with vague directions trying to get where you're trying to go. Cultivate a Zen state of mind...

3. Expect the "interview" questions to be something like: "Did you have any 53(c) sect 89 reclaimable charge-backs loss amortizations for deductible klefnabulator expenses?" When you look for more information, there isn't any. When you check out the IRS instructions, they say (surprise!) exactly what the "interview" question said. TurboTax asks you in English, tells you what the amount applies to, and even tells you how commonly this item is entered.

4. Don't expect the program to be smart about anything. TurboTax figures out that if you don't have deduction A, you can't possibly have B or C, but H&R Block asks you every question.

5. Don't expect to be able to import from QuickBooks or last year's taxes produced by TurboTax. Generate those reports and type in your numbers.

6. Don't expect all the forms to be there -- and don't expect the software to let you know. I tried and tried to get to Form 4562, Amortization and Depreciation, and ended up at several different dead-ends. I again called tech support and talked at length with a guy who took me through more dead-ends before finally discovering that the form "hadn't been released by the IRS yet." You might think the software itself would let you know, but you'd be wrong.

7. To switch between your 1120S and filling out a 1099-misc for a contractor is not intuitive. Another call to tech support. For 20 minutes or so, the guy didn't seem to understand what a 1099 was, or even understand that I was working on an S-Corp return and not a 1040(!). More dead ends. Finally, he got help and told me to close the program and reopen it to get where I wanted to go.

8. I then gave up. I should say that I did all this stuff on Jan 15, which I admit is early in the year. So if things improve markedly, I'll update this review.

9. Meanwhile, based on this experience, I would say that the fact this combination package is about half the price of the separate TurboTax business and personal packages, does NOT make it a good deal! It is easy for me to loath Intuit, but next year I'll most likely be doing business with them again. Sigh.

Here's an business tax update on February 15. The updated software still doesn't recognize my monitor, but at least I knew what to do this time and finished filling out taxes fairly quickly. I have done my own taxes for years and had QuickBooks reports and prior year forms. Dollar-wise, the program is off from what I calculated from QuickBooks by about $104, but at this point I'm not quibbling. Nothing has changed from what I said in January, although it seems that all the forms are now available. The interview still seems quite stupid -- and it makes mistakes: I filled out the tax form for an S corporation, which NEVER pays taxes, and the program asked me how much estimated tax I'd paid and tried to get me to pay a penalty for... Read more

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Comment on It’s Not What You Make, It’s What You Keep: How to Keep as Much After-Tax Money as the Law Allows by Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:49:53 +0000

It's deductible., October 30, 2011

Phyllis C. Rowland (Wichita, KS USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: ItsDeductible 2002 Cash for Your Used Clothing (Paperback)

Nothing new to me here, but good for those who need it anyway. Thank you all the same. Whenever we can save money, that's good.

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Comment on It’s Not What You Make, It’s What You Keep: How to Keep as Much After-Tax Money as the Law Allows by Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:16:20 +0000

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Helpful, February 26, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: ItsDeductible 2002 Cash for Your Used Clothing (Paperback)

My CPA is recommending this book to all of his clients. I found it very helpful with all sorts of deductible items I never would have thought about. I'm convinced it's going to save me money on my taxes this year. I'll know what to be thinking about for next year now. Very informative and easy to read.

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Comment on It’s Not What You Make, It’s What You Keep: How to Keep as Much After-Tax Money as the Law Allows by Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:22:37 +0000

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

If You Want To Save Money, You Must Have This Book!, March 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: ItsDeductible 2002 Cash for Your Used Clothing (Paperback)

This book has been absolutely incredible! I have always donated used items, but only deducted the maximum amount allowed without itemizing. The very first month I used this book for my donated items, my deductions exceeded $1000! Granted, I've been cleaning closets and a basement, but I have plenty more rooms and a garage that still needs sifting. I'll never again waste my time having a yard sale.

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Comment on Tax Question about IRA’s? by Quick Answers

Quick Answers — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:44:16 +0000

First, let’s be picky about language. You inherited what? Cash? I ask because the inheritance is simply money, it can be used to fund the IRA, but you must be working to be eligible. (You are and this covers both of you.)

With $60K of AGI, you probably have $40K taxable, which is in the 15% tax bracket. Funding $11,000 of IRA would reduce the taxable income and at 15% is worth $1650.

For the refund to swing $2917, I think you did something wrong. The swing of $2917 would only make sense if your taxable income was more than $80,000.

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Comment on Corrupt Pennsylvania Judges Admit Jailing Kids For Cash by skybirdbird

skybirdbird — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:09:58 +0000

@johnnyboypdq yes, i hope this is just the beginning…

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Comment on Corrupt Pennsylvania Judges Admit Jailing Kids For Cash by GovernmentWar

GovernmentWar — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:45:43 +0000

Save the state money! Shoot them in the head and be done with it.

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Comment on Corrupt Pennsylvania Judges Admit Jailing Kids For Cash by mawheegan

mawheegan — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:38:54 +0000

There’s a lot more corruption than anyone realizes on both sides of the line. Canada suffers this kind of crap in proportion to its population as well. They should all be lined up and shot.

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