I've been using HR Block/Tax Cut software for 10 years, after this year NO MORE.
I don't even know where to begin with this, but it's obvious the HR Block software development/design team have NO clue what their doing. I should have known when I came across the following errors there was going to be trouble. For starters:
1.in previous years when I've done my taxes w / HR Block tax software I was always prompted to enter my property taxes for my house, but not this year - I had to hunt and search for the field to enter my property taxes... Thank goodness I knew to look for this and caught this before I filed, because it made a $3k difference in my tax return!
2. I also ran into trouble when I noticed I wasn't prompted when I stated I started a new job in 2011. You can write off certain job hunting expenses associated with searching for a new job (I remembered this from a previous time when I switched jobs). However, the HR Block tax software did not flag me to enter my job search expenses and again I had to hunt and peck for the fields to enter these cost in as well... Again this also made a little bit of difference in my tax return as well.
3. Then when I went to file my taxes I was prevented from e-filing them for the first time in 10 years! I actually had to print my taxes out and mail them in which shocked me - and the reason was because I had gotten married, but was filing separately and because we live in a community property state the IRS won't allow you to e-file those returns. However the HR Block tax software kept prompting me and requesting that I e-file my return. I finally had to email the HR Block techs to tell them to stop sending me reminders to e-file. Which they did, but being someone who comes from an IT background - wouldn't this be a glaring issue that should have been resolved during software testing?! Just saying...
So working through all issues aside, I finally submitted my taxes early because I knew I would be receiving a tax return... However, what I didn't know is that the HR Block tax software had one more issue up it's sleeve I was about to discover that was going to come back to bite me in the backside and that issue came to light when my husband went to file his taxes using Turbo Tax and was flagged to enter my W2 information on his return because we live in the community property state of WA... And according to the IRS when you live in a community property state like TX, WA, or CA - you have to combine your income w / your spouses and divide it in half when preparing your taxes married by filing separately! That's a valuable little nugget of information to know, don't you think when designing/developing tax software?!
I was shocked - I called the IRS to confirm this and they said - yes, this is how you have to file your taxes when you're married living in a community property state... And since I had already filed my taxes, I now would have to submit an amendment!
I contacted HR Block to raise awareness to this HUGE gap in their software design... The response I was given was that they were sorry, but "they can't cover every specialized tax situation".interesting I said, especially when your competitor, Turbo Tax does!
I told them that had it not been for my husband filing his taxes w / Turbo Tax - we never would have known about this and that this is going to be a huge issue for all these married couples who are filing separately in community property states using HR Block tax software to prepare their taxes...
HR Block customer service went on to tell me that they were sorry, but they couldn't help me since their software does not support this situation on their online tax amendment form. They then told I would have to go into one of their HR Block offices and have one of their accountants do my amendment and that I would have to pay them to do this! Really I said?! Are you serious?!
I said, so let me get this straight, HR Block, whom I have already paid $45 to use their online tax software, are telling me due to the shortcomings of their own software say I NOW have to pay one of their accountants in one of their HR Block tax offices to do an amendment on my 2011 tax return that they screwed up?! Absolutely not!
I requested a refund for my HR Block tax software purchase and was told that because it had been over 60 days since I purchased the software that HR Block could not refund my money - that I would have to mail the receipt to their Corp HQ to request a refund. Unbelievable.
So as I promised the HR Block customer service rep, the aforementioned review is going to be wall papered all over the internet for those to see.
For those of you who are married living in community property states who are filing separately using HR Block tax software... Don't let HR Block give you excuses that it's not their fault when the IRS kicks your 2011 taxes back to you and request you file an amendment that this is a 'special tax situation' and they didn't know about this, because this is a known software gap issue that HR Block has to resolve, especially since their competitor got it right. After all community property states (LA, TX, NM, AZ, CA NV, ID, WA, WI) have been around for years and didn't just pop into existence as of 2011. Serious FAIL on HR Block's part!
Thank goodness my husband used Turbo Tax this year to do his taxes, otherwise I would still be in the dark on this matter and blindsided when the IRS contacted me. Good Luck everyone!
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