TaxCut/TTAX program comparison notes

"Wally B" wrote

(snip)

Attempting to switch from T-Tax to T-Cut, I encountered what you're saying, and then some. There were many inaccurately imported items, and if I pursued my return with T-Cut, I would have had to spend a great amount of time correcting and reconciling.

I have tried T-Cut a few times and was never able to get very far due to its appalling lack of sophistication with depreciation. With complicated returns, I have found T-Cut to be a rediculous pile of junk, and I will never try it again.

OTOH, T-Tax has never let me down in this area. Up 'till 2 years ago, I used T-Tax for a return with many rental properties and a few schedule C's. There were several hundred depreciated items in my return. T-Tax never had a problem with anything I could throw at it until I finally exceeded its limitations with Sched E forms.

(snip)

Unfortunately, I have read nothing from anyone using T-Act with a complex return. Also, T-Act doesn't import from any of its competetor's products. The latter has kept me from trying it.

One advantage of both T-Cut and T-Act over T-Tax is that their manufacturers state they have no forms limitations, whereas T-Tax does. This, however, will affect few TPs.

(snip)

Wally - have you ever seen the size of the US Tax Code? How about the library and updates to something like CCH Tax Guide that my father-in-law used to subscribe to when he owned his own accounting business was bigger than the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Something's wrong in the system when this stuff is so huge.

A gag was going around a few years ago:

Clinton's Simplified Tax Form

Part 1. Income

1. How much money did you make last year?...>_________

1. Send it in...............................>_________

2. If you have any questions or comments, please write them on the provided line > _

Really? You've got to be kidding! (Not!)

With TaxCut, though, it's really not the AMOUNT of data which surprises me. It's the degree to which the TCUT developers try to use operating system directories and standard HTML files as organizational mechanisms, so that all of this spills into such a visible mess to the user who happens to peruse the installation files. For help, for example, it seems to me that other folks pack what amounts to a similarly very large number of similarly cross-linked pages into a single .CHM help file. I haven't seen another application that comes close to TaxCut in terms of how the installation is cluttered with unnecessary detail about application data.

HTML is generally pretty darn inefficient, with formatting info exceeding the actual "data" content by a factor of 20-50 in many cases. I looked at a few of the TaxCut HTML pages and they looked pretty grim in this regard.

Although I haven't made a study out of it, as a developer, I get a very nervious feeling in browsing this stuff that TaxCut has locked themselves into a very inflexible and high-maintenance-cost approach as to how they materialize stuff (e.g., "forms") on-screen to be filled in. It's just my gut instinct, but I don't see a chance in heck of them catching up with TTAX until they pretty much throw away what they've got and start over (and, I would guess, do so in such a way that some good people with some good programming savvy have a say in things which isn't completely drowned out by management which has a "long history" of "understanding" the tax business).

Wally B

I think you understate the case. Another inexcusable thing in this area is that TaxCut doesn't even compute AMT depreciation values for you, even though it has all the necessary input as a result of the normal calculation.

Then, when I sell the property, TaxCut lamely asks ME for the AMT profit or loss, which of course is based on the AMT depreciations that TaxCut wouldn't/didn't calculate. Well, er, thanks a lot, Mr. H&R Blockhead.

Well, it wasn't quite so hot say, 7 or 8 years ago, and the 2002 activation thing made TT unacceptable until they (thankfully) fixed it. But I agree - in recent years, it has been a truly excellent piece of software, particularly in it's ability to make sense out of the fuzzy/irrational US government nonsense on what would seem to me to be a nearly impossibly tight schedule.

Ah, but I sold my triplex, and life is getting simpler. I might just try TaxAct next year. Intuit needs some competition, and TaxCut ain't it (it is somewhat beyond me how TaxCut fairs as well as they do in Tax SW reviews).

Wally B

"Wally B" wrote

I attached some notes I made the last time I used T-Cut. The returns I was working on were not filed since it was impossible for me to prepare the return correctly. Thus, my notes cease at the early stages of that return.

It surprises me that they link their name to that POS.

I work at H&RB every few years to stay current. Most of the preparers use the office software for their personal taxes, and this is strongly encouraged by Block. The office program is nothing like the consumer version. However, out of the preparers who didn't want their personal info on Block's system, I didn't know any who used T-Cut; IIRC, think they used T-Tax.

Not my experience:

I started using TT well over 10 years ago. Prior to that I had an accountant prepare my taxes for an outrageous fee. I always handed her Quicken printouts in exactly the formats she requested -- no shoebox full of receipts -- and always paid over $2500 for a moderately complex 1040 with only ONE Sched C and about 12 rentals. As I read up on real estate tax and bounced questions off her she charged me a "research fee" to look up stuff she didn't know. Having had enough of that BS, I went to tax school for the education and started using TT in parallel with my accountant. TT started leading me to more tax-advantageous strategies that turned out to be correct. I haven't had any problems with the software.

The only complaint I ever had with it (other than the form limits) was the way it handles autos. For each Sched C, and for each Sched E, the user must redundantly enter the auto's specifics. One would think that one could select from a list of autos that had already been entered, and have that info carry to the current schedule. These days I use Intuit's professional software called ProSeries. ProSeries works the same way! I issued a suggestion to Support last year and we'll see if that gets implemented. I haven't checked this year.

A very controversial subject and I don't want to get into an argument, but I think there was an overreaction to that. Intuit retracted that activation scheme. Although I didn't like it, I wasn't about to switch to an inferior product just for that reason or just to spite Intuit. I think activation schemes are the way of the future, and Intuit is big enough to go out on a limb for it. In that case, the limb snapped.

Yes, and I particularly miss the help routine. I thought it was excellent. The user can get as much or as little help as desired.

Is it too late to try it this year? Please post back with results whenever you do try it.