H&R Block Tax Software Deluxe + State 2013 Win [Download]

H&R Block Tax Software Deluxe + State 2013 Win [Download] From H&R Block List Price: $44.99 Price: $34.99 Digital media products such as Amazon MP3s, Amazon Instant Videos, and Kindle content can only be purchased on Amazon.com. Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Ships from and sold by Amazon Digital Services Inc Average customer review:  (36 customer reviews)

Product Description

Guidance for all your personal tax situations. Federal forms and State forms. Step-by-step interviews guide you through a customized experience relevant to your tax situation. Everything you need to prepare your federal and state taxes in one complete program.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7 in Digital Software
• Brand: H&R Block
• Model: 1316800-13
• Released on: 2013-11-16
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP
• Format: Download
• Original language: English

Features

• Personalized tax advice
• Maximize mortgage interest and charitable deductions
• Sale of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
111 of 119 people found the following review helpful.
Pleased overall
By Ali Julia
I've used H&R Block's tax software (formerly called TaxCut) every year since 1995. Several times when I saw a promotional deal I purchased both TaxCut and TurboTax to compare. I found that TurboTax did not do anything better than TaxCut while costing consistently more.

✔ INSTALLATION
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♦ If you encounter issues with display, such as not seeing selection boxes, check your screen resolution. Both Windows and Mac minimum requirement for the screen resolution is 1024 x 768 pixels or higher. At a lower resolution H&R Block software will have problem with display such as not properly displaying selection boxes. Screen resolution can be changed on your control panel by change PC's display settings.

♦ If you are using a digital download you will need a key-code to install the software after you dowload it. The key-code can be located two ways.
Option 1: After my download finished the install started automatically offering me a choice of two links "View Keys" and "Install". When I selected view key-code after a fairly long pause it displayed my key-code in a browser window.
Option 2: You can locate it in your Amazon account:
1) Log into Amazon
2) Select Your Account at the top right of the page
3) Select Games and Software downloads which is towards the bottom of the long page you see when you log in
4) Then under H&R software entry you will see the key-code that you need to enter to unlock the software

♦ Does H&R allow to install the software on two PCs?
I found the answer on H&R Block web site FAQ under the topic "Installing Software on Another Computer"
I quote the FAQ answer below:
"There are just a few steps necessary to re-install the H&R Block At Home program from the CD you received in the mail. Follow the steps below to re-install the program or install it on a second computer.
Insert the H&R Block At Home CD into your computer.
Click the Need to Re-install? link on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen.
The Frequently Asked Questions page will open to the first FAQ titled, "Can I install the software on a second computer?"
Enter your activation code and last 4 digits of the credit card you used to purchase the program initially and click Activate.
You can find your activation code in your purchase confirmation e-mail.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation."

✔ WHAT IS INCLUDED
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I purchased a digital download version of H&R Block Deluxe plus State. This version entitles you to 5 free federal e-files. You can print and mail as many returns as you want, there is no limit on printing.

One state software is included in the package but the package does NOT include free e-file for the state return (see one exception below). If you want to e-file your state return you will need to pay a fee of $19.95 to e-file each state return. Alternatively, you can print all the forms and mail them using US post office. If you need to file taxes for an additional state, each additional state is $39.95 plus $19.95 e-file fee. Ouch!

Note: NY state residents can e-file state returns for free.

✔ GENERAL
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I just finished my preliminary tax return and below are my observations. Note: the forms are not final until January 9, 2014.

♦ H&R Block starts the interview process with an annoying up-sell pitch, recommending an upgrade from Deluxe to Premium even when it is not necessary. In my opinion, they should wait until the person enters this year's data and suggest the upgrade only if there is something about the return that can benefit from the Premium version. That would have been useful.

What is the difference between Premium and Deluxe? The Premium version offers advanced tools for self-employed and rental property owners: cost basis of home sales, dividends, gifts, and inheritance assets. It has advanced schedule C guidance to maximize deductions for self-employment income. And finally it has guidance for rental property income and expenses. The rest of the Premium package is the same as Deluxe.

Note that the Deluxe package has support for self-employed income as well as stock sale cost basis calculations. Last year I had to do both and I found the guidance in Deluxe package was sufficient to complete the forms.

♦ Pet Peeve: Help is not context sensitive. For example, when you click on "learn more" about a particular topic the general help window opens but it does not show help topics for the specific topic that you were working on. Instead you need to search and know which key words to use locate the relevant topics.

♦ H&R Block provides you some guidance for completing Form 1116 (foreign tax credit, for example foreign tax paid by mutual funds). However, you need to keep switching between whole-form view to enter data and then back to interview to read the instructions. Even though the form where you can enter data is visible at the same time as instructions you cannot enter data into it until you switch into whole-form view. This is cumbersome, but at least there is some guidance for this form.

♦ DeductionPro (which helps you put value on your charitable donations) is integrated into H&R Block software running on your local PC. You no longer need to enter this information on H&R web site. I prefer having this information locally on my PC for better security. The change from web site to local PC was introduced last year and I was happy to see that this change is here to stay.

♦ I don't use the default location for the tax returns due to how I set up my backup software. The H&R Block software does not initially remember this new location on the second start of the application, it told me I have no returns. I needed to pick the return manually from the File menu, as it did remember recently used files. The third time I started the software, it finally knew the location of the tax return file.

♦ I use large font option on my monitor display and in the past years had display issues on some forms (text boxes were display overlapping each other on some forms). This year all forms displayed properly.

♦ I usually purchase tax software as early as possible to help me with end year tax planning. However, if timing is not important to you be aware that the price on this package changes often and you can catch some great discounts. I use a nice tool that shows history of Amazon prices. If you enter "Amazon price history alert" in Google it will come up at the top, my favorite has the word camel in the name. You can set up the tool to send you an alert when you desired price drop is reached. During the last tax year season the price fluctuated between $20 and the list price of $44.99, and was on the gold deal special a couple of times.

♦ For folks trying to download State Forms. The state forms are not available as of 11/17/2013. You have an option of entering email where you will be notified as soon as the form for your state becomes available. Alternatively, you can go to H&R website, click on "Download Software" on the top banner, and select "State Editions". Currently it says "Available in January 2014".

When the state forms will become available they can be downloaded by selecting the State Tab and then clicking on the button labelled "Buy" (a little scary since we already paid for it) but then "buy" will turn into "update" and the forms will be downloaded to your computer.

♦ At the end of the interview process there is a check step (which you can run at any time, but the interview ends with this check). This step flags problems (e.g. missing information) and potential audit alerts (e.g. unusual deductions) with red flags, and reminders (e.g. things you marked tentative) with yellow flags.

♦ Update: To post an answer to a good question asked via a comment: Does H&R has the ability to import TurboTax data from previous years?
Yes. TurboTax® files have a .tax extension. Use the Browse button within H&R Block application to navigate to the folder you need and it will import the data from TT return.

I have been a H&R Block/TaxCut user for many years. I keep coming back because it works well for the tax forms I need to do and it is less expensive than TurboTax. If you have a question I have not covered leave a comment and I will do my best to answer it.

Ali Julia review
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful.
I just downloaded and it does include 5 free federal e-files.
By JVC Engineering
Just like the hard copy disc purchase but costs less. Your activation code also activates the 5 free federal e-files.
38 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
Long-time customer, not happy about this program's install process - READ if you have H&R Block 2012 already installed!
By Jeremy K.
So, I'm a long time H&R Block Tax software customer. I've always been happy with the product, and the price - way less than TurboTax or a human. That said, I just battled a frustrating install process and finally figured out the problem. After installing 2013, the first order of business was to download a software update (Federal). The update downloaded, and then failed during update. The software went into this cycle of prompting for an update, failing to install it (would get to about 80% and then roll back), then prompting for an update again. After cycling through this a few times and failing, I uninstalled 2013, re-installed, and proceeded to battle the same issue.

After an hour of frustration I thought to myself, I wonder if having H&R Block 2012 on my machine is causing a problem? So, I uninstalled 2012, uninstalled 2013, then re-installed 2013 and voila, problem solved. So, if any of you out there have 2012 installed (or potentially any other version), and you are having install/update problems - I would remove previous versions first!

Software conflicts happen, I get it. The reason for the two-star review is because the conflict isn't addressed AT ALL by the 2013 software. The 2013 software should have checked for previous versions during install and prompted for removal. At minimum, a warning or disclaimer should have been provided with the product detailing this as part of the install instructions. At BARE MINIMUM, they would have posted something about this on their online support page. Considering they left me to battle this for an hour before eventually solving the problem on my own, I'm not real thrilled with them to start this year's tax season. This is disappointing because I generally start my taxes with a feeling of happiness, euphoria really - and they took this feeling of joy away from me...

Other comments are also correct about the unnecessary up-sell attempt to premium - before they even know if you NEED it. If you need to file a state return be sure to pay the extra $$$ now and buy this version with state included (vs. Deluxe without state) - they charge more to bolt it on within the software.
See all 36 customer reviews...