H&R Block Tax Software Deluxe + State 2021 with 3% Refund Bonus Offer (Yakibest Exclusive) | [PC Download]

Works great

Wonderful, easy, straight forward interview. I have used h&r block for many years without complaint. It is less expensive than better known brands. I used it while i was an independent contractor and while 1 was an employee. I use it to file my taxes now that i have retired.

If you have stock investments in addition the regular w2, interest, and dividends, h&r is cheaper than turbo tax. Otherwise having used both, they are essentially the same with the same results. There is a minor difference. H&r rounds entries when you enter them. For example, if you enter $45.62 it rounds it to $46 then sums your entries. Turbo tax accepts entries to the penny but then rounds the sum. I compared the results once, figuring my income with both programs. I ended up with an agi difference of one dollar. Not enough to make a difference in the tax but some people may not like the h&r method. I would suggest not filing early. Wait until early april because there are software updates. I had one problem that was fixed on an update. I wasted a lot of time because i did my tax early. Had i waited i would never have seen the problem.

I’ve used h&r block software, now, for at least 10 years. I appreciate it does its work and doesn’t put effort into upselling me and pushing other products or services much.

It imports carryovers from prior years flawlessly, allows flexible access, is pretty rock-solid all around.

Could use a bit of user interface refreshment that seems to have gone by the wayside as functionalities have evolved, and internal documentation/definition/links to irs pages could be a zillion times better; but all in all, this tool is a solid and simple hammer to use for sometimes not-so-simple situations.

We do a schedule c, but only buy deluxe, ’cause that’s just fine for what we need. We e-filed this year, as it’s supposed to be the patriotic thing to do or something with current backlogs easier to address, and after two calls to the support folks realized it’s a five digit secret code, and four won’t cut it, e-file won my vote for easiest filings ever.

It really only deserves a 4 star, due to its clunky coverage of topics i personally want to understand better; but it gets a 5 in comparison to the competition, which i’d give a 3-minus to. Fyi

i’m a do-it-yourselfer on most things – i have no qualms buying and recommending h&r blocks tax software. I don’t know about their claims overall, but i do know my taxes are solid, everything’s covered properly, i feel confident, and they don’t push me to buy more stuff.

I like the ease of going from one year to the next without putting in a lot of data. I like the price. I like that i can do 5 federal taxes for the price of one software purchase. I like the explanations when i am not sure what needs to go into certain fields. I like the ease of switching from one topic to another. I like the review at the end that lets me know that, given what i have done, everything is accurate. I like that they let me know when the forms have been accepted and if there are any problems.
What don’t i like? Well if it was free i would like it even better but life doesn’t work that way.

Have used hr block for years. Very easy to use, tech support available when needed…why pay more?

And it’s simple to use.

I have used this program for so many years back that i can’t even remember when i started….way back when it used to be called ‘taxcut’. Never had a problem with the irs regarding the submitted forms. The program is very easy to use and intuitive as well. If you can read, you can understand it and if you have the information at hand (receipts, numbers, etc.), there would be no reason you could not do your own taxes with this program and put the money in your pocket that you would otherwise pay a tax preparer. Based upon your answers, all of the necessary forms are filled out eliminating the guesswork of which ones are needed.

When i was younger my wife and i had rather complicated returns involving situations that included not only our normal personal information but included self-employment information as well….this program handled it perfectly every year.

The program that i always buy is the ‘deluxe’ which includes free state software as well and since you need it anyway, i feel that it is the best bargain. Starting early in december, i begin to daily check the prices of the download version on amazon and invariably i end up buying it at about half the price that it is originally listed for when it first comes out. I usually purchase it for somewhere in the mid-twenties every december. Don’t let the fear of the irs scare you out of doing your own taxes….this program is a breeze.

Tried the turbo stuff one year and went back to the h&r block version since. Our taxes are not particularly hard, but we did have many charitable deductions before the standard got so good. Now, our state has dropped its tax too! I also do our daughter’s taxes on this and it is simple too.

H&r block makes a good tax product, i like it better than turbotax and it’s less expensive.

I have been using h&r block tax software for many years, and overall despite minor complaints here and there, i find that it meets my needs best. This year, i have more complaints than in the past; i will describe them in the problems section below.

I keep using h&rblock because it does what i need, and it has always been cheaper than turbotax. I have been buying the deluxe version of h&r block because it covers the mutual fund’s sales, cost basis calculations are included (schedule d, capital gains and losses), the form for foreign tax credit from mutual funds is present (form 1116), as well as stock sales. It also includes schedule c (profit or loss from business) and schedule k1 (k-1 s corps) if you are reporting gain or loss on your personal taxes. To get this functionality in turbotax, you need to buy the premium version of the software.

Problems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* in the past, the interview started with a prompt to import last year’s return. Importing the old tax return saves a lot of typing, as a lot of information is transferred from the old form. This year’s return does not prompt to import automatically. The interview began by asking me to type my name, social security number, and so forth. I found the option to import last year’s return under file – import last year return. So the capability is there, but you need to know to start there. Bad change!

* if you bought an electric vehicle and installed a home charger, you can file form 8911 to get 30% credit for alternative fuel vehicle refueling property you placed in service during the current tax year. H&r block has a form for electric vehicle purchase credit but does not have the 8911 form for the charger. The interview does not include the charger question. Big miss!

* h&r block wants to sell you more services. It refers to this as personalized services, and if you select it will provide you info about software deals (which are never as good as amazon deals), services, and consultations. Fortunately, you can say ‘no, thanks,’ but it requires you to pay attention to opt-out if you want to avoid marketing email.

* i ran into an issue trying to save my return as pdf995 (i.e., as pdf). Reinstalling pdf995 software (it comes with h&r block software) did not help. When i looked under print settings, it showed pdf995 as the default printer. I had to change the default printer to my actual printer, and then i was able to save the return as pdf995 successfully. I wanted to share this tip in case someone else runs into this issue.

Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* if you are using a digital download, you will need an activation code to install the software.
The activation code is shown in the amazon email with the subject line ‘your amazon.com order of ‘h&r block tax software del…’. If needed, you can also get it from amazon software downloads. To locate it, you need to do this:
1) log into amazon
2) select ‘your account’ and the section called ‘digital content.’
3) select ‘your games and software downloads.’
4) then, under h&r software entry, you will see activation code

* does h&r allow to install of the software on two pcs?
No. The license agreement that one needs to accept during the install says this:

‘software copies. You may only install and use the software on one computer. You may copy the software for backup and archival purposes only, as long as the original and each copy are kept in your possession and control.

Upgrades. You must first acquire a valid license to the software to receive and use any software upgrades. After you acquire and install any software upgrade, you may only use the upgraded version of the software, and you will no longer use the prior version of the software other than for backup or archival purposes if you need to reinstall the software.’

under limitation, it also states that the software is for use for you and your immediate family members. You are not allowed to sell, rent, loan, or otherwise transfer the product to someone else.

Price
~~~~~~
if you are looking for the best deal, amazon often runs very attractive promotions on black friday and a few other times between now and april. You can get notified about the price drops by checking camelcamelcamel site that can send you emails when the price drops by the amount you specify. During the last tax year, the price fluctuated between $22 and the list price of $44.99, dipping below $30 several times. It also qualifies for digital credits for no-rush prime shipping. However, it no longer qualifies for rewards from prime card rewards (this restriction started in 2019).

* what is included
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
using tax software includes two fees – one to use the software and the second one to e-file the returns with irs. This package includes the cost of using both the federal tax return and state return for one state (if you need to file taxes in two states, you will need to buy the second state software at full price).

This package also includes the cost of 5 free federal e-files, but it does not include the cost of e-file for the state return. Note that there is no limit on how many returns can be printed on paper for either federal or state returns, so you can print and mail any number of returns you desire.

* the state forms are not available as i write this review. The state form will be available on january 3, 2022. You can enter an email to be notified when it becomes available.

When the state forms become available, the state software can be downloaded directly from the h&r block application from the first screen of the state tax preparation. There is no extra fee.

All updates of both federal and state software are free.

* general
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* when you start the software, the first step (after validating your license) allows you to old your data from the previous year’s return. You can load h&r block software, turbotax, or a pdf copy of the 2020 return.

* since many of my numbers are not final, i use the h&r feature that allows me to mark entries as ‘tentative’ (right mouse click, then select ‘mark entry as tentative’ from a drop-down list).

H&r block keeps track of all tentative entries and displays them during a ‘check’ step which is typically invoked at the end of the interview but can also be invoked by itself at any time. The check step lists all entries marked as tentative, so it is easy to update them.

* 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 have determined if the person would truly benefit from the premium version first. That would have been useful. As it stands now, it is just annoying.

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. Schedule c is a complete schedule – expenses, depreciation, and all that through an interview process. The difference between the premium and deluxe versions is that you use deluxe you report gain or loss on your personal taxes (i.e., not as a corporation).

* to combat stolen-identity tax returns, h&r block now asks you to provide a state-issued id number. It is not required but highly encouraged.

* i like deductionpro, which helps suggest reasonable prices based on the condition of the donated used clothing items. It is nice not to have to come up with what is reasonable on my own.

* the final tax return can be saved in a pdf format for future reference. I always do that so i can re-print an old return without having to run an old copy of h&r block (especially down the road when a new computer may not even have an old h&r block installed).

* h&r block can print forms when an ethernet connection is disconnected. In 2014 turbotax introduced a requirement that the data had to be sent to intuit’s servers to be formatted for printing. H&r block does not have this requirement.

* if you owe taxes, there are three options for payment: electronic withdrawal from your bank (free), mailing a check (free), and paying by credit card from a secure website (not free). Irs does not charge a fee, but the sites that provide this service do. Several websites provide this service with a ‘convenience’ fee. If you search for ‘pay taxes by credit or debit,’ you will see the detailed fee schedule on the irs.gov website.

* is it possible to download an old version of h&r block software purchased on amazon?

Yes. Amazon allows you to download the software purchased on amazon as long as you have an amazon account. There is no extra charge for downloading old software. The first download i bought on amazon was in 2009, and i tested that i can still download it.
Note that if you purchased the software directly from the h&rblock site, they add on a charge for ‘extended download service.’ amazon does not do that.

To get an old digital download, go to ‘your orders,’ then ‘digital orders,’ and select a year from the drop-down list. The list goes back to the year i opened my amazon account.

* does the application provide a feature to confirm irs/state agency tax acceptance status?

Yes, once you submit your return, there will be a button on the first page to request a status check. The resulting status will be displayed on the first page. You can request status updates multiple times.

Ali julia review

I’ve used tax slayer for years, and tried many other programs as well. At some point i’ve used just about every one out there.

I get 1099’s from a few places though, such as amazon here from the vine program, or best buy from their tech insider network, which many programs do not allow to be filed as hobby income. They force you to create schedule cs and report it as business income, which totally messes up any hope of refunds.

This is the second year in a row now h&r block’s software had, right there, the ‘this is hobby income’ option that most of the others do not. Since this is not a business, just things i have to deal with for the review programs i’m in, there’s no reason to file any other way.

I like how it pulls data from previous years if you have used the same software, or how it can pull data from pdf’s or even photos you take of things like your w2’s. There’s so little actual number entry needed.

The only issue i had was that while it did great importing my w2 via capturing it on my iphone after i opened a special link it sent me, and it got all the federal data right, it did not capture the state taxes that were withheld. So initially the program was insisting i owed over 3 grand for my state taxes… I had to manually go and find that info to enter it manually.

Had it not done that, i would’ve given this 5 stars. I got it on sale, the state filing fee was minimal, so it was about as cheap as any other option out there, since tax slayer keeps hiking their prices.

I just finished filing today since i finally got my last 1099, and within 10 minutes of electronically filing i was already notified that both the federal and state were accepted.

It really doesn’t get much easier than this…

It seems to work ok. I get this every year because it is available before tax year end, and i need to make certain estimates before the end of the year,

pros: cheaper than turbotax
available before turbotax
downloading is quite easy
theoretically, they will help you out in an audit. I have not put this to the test.

Is it accurate? Who knows? I’m not buying tax software because i’m a tax expert!

Cons: rounds everything to the nearest dollar. I mean everything, even values from official mailings,
such as w- s, 1099s, tax payments. I find this irritating.
You can’t look at a completed form to review it, despite the ‘forms’ feature. It just shows you
the worksheets it uses internally. You have to print the form for mailing to view it.
There’s no ‘quick entry’ for forms such as 1099-div or 1099-int. You have to endure a tedious
interview for every 1099, even though you are essentially copying numbers from your 1099 to
their 1099.
There’s no support to use the irs approved facility of attaching a 1099-b in lieu of entering each
transaction individually.

As with all tax software, you have all the forms at your fingertips and the program will figure out what you need. If you have unusual or unfamiliar situations, it’s probably quite helpful.

If your filing requirements are quite basic, it’s probably overkill to use this tax software. Just download the forms online from irs.gov and use a spreadsheet to handle the tedious math.

Highly recommend i’m a long time user. Gets the job done. Help menus are useful. 5 free electronic federal filings but state electronic filing is $20 … I usually just print and mail state since $20 is a rip. They tend to drop the price on this software so unless you’re in a hurry wait a bit for better price

If you buy from amazon i understand you can download the app again in the future – whereas if you buy direct from h&r block they charge you to download in the future which is not good. The federal program goes pretty good each year. There are a few forms (ie. 5498) that i get in the mail and it’s not clear by the h&r block program where it goes, but a google search tells you that form 5498 is not needed (the google search top result comes from a competitor to this program – so i would think after all these years they’d add it to h&r block help…).
As for my state portion, download and electronic file is fine, but i’m not convinced that the results are 100% accurate as i always owe on state, but get a refund on federal – and this year the program stated i get business income deduction and asked for #s which no help around it. After googling it and finally calling the state irs to ask – it turns out you need to own a business and have a loss for that. There was no details nor help sufficient to know if that section applied nor what amounts to put in but it seemed to think i qualified. Investigating the ‘whole form’, it pointed back to a schedule c of the federal 1040 – which i didn’t have – so must be a bug in the program…? Anyway – cost me a few hours of searching. And due to these 2 items on state, i’m not convinced they spent enough time on my state program to feel confident i’m getting the right treatment & full/correct credits, etc.

Does the job at a good cost, would recommend

H&r block deluxe online (website)
cost: $54.99
1 free federal e-file
state program + e-file: $44.99 ea.
Total: $99.98 for filing 1 fed & state e-file

h&r block deluxe + state software
cost: $44.99 (or cheaper on sale)
up to 5 free federal e-files
state program: $0 (additional states: $39.95 ea.)
state e-file (not applicable to ny): $19.95 ea.
Total: $64.98 (or cheaper) for filing 1 fed & state e-file

whether you’re filing for yourself or for multiple people in your household, going the software download route is cheaper! The software was about the same experience as the online version, in my opinion, but with the added perk of being able to see the forms during the process via the ‘view form’ toggle. I found one ‘explain this’ link that wouldn’t link to the correct information, but that was a minor inconvenience.

I’ve seen this software as cheap as $15 at some retailers, so if you can find it on sale, it’s even more of a deal. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for software sales in the future instead of paying the h&r block online prices. Amazon provided me the download link immediately after purchase, and i didn’t have any access with the download or installation of federal/state.

I’ve been using this software for about 20 years (every year i bang my head against the wall and curse the software). But, like a glutton for punishment, i keep coming back. So i will talk about the pros and cons. H&r block must have something to offer, if i keep buying it every year.
Pros: you can do multiple returns and file them electronically–both federal and state. You can load prior year’s data easily. The amazon price is awesome for download: $22.50. I love that you can create a pdf file for your records. Most importantly the tax software updates for tax changes that you may not know about. You won’t know the changes when you file a free tax return on the irs website. The software alerted me to a credit that might be available to my my retired father.
Cons: there’s a learning curve, obviously. But what i don’t like is: you can’t find any answers on the internet if you get stuck. I forgot to enter estimated taxes so i wasted about 10 minutes trying to figure out where do you enter it. I had missed the check box on a page that had probably 8 boxes; so you literally have to go through each page carefully–line by line–when you start the return. The software has cumbersome question pages that take ages to plow through. At the end of the day, i paid $22.50, and a tax office might charge you $150 per tax return. Also, i did multiple returns for family members. The suffering was worth it.

It ran great! It downloaded some complex income data from my wife’s investment company, let me enter other data, and filled out all of the fed and my state forms.

One annoying thing about the h&r block tax prep software: the font it uses for the numbers (mostly dollars) that it uses for the user’s data sucks. They are barely legible on the computer screen.

I know that they want everybody to file electronically, but i still print and mail my tax files in to the feds and the state. And i like to print out and keep a hard copy of what i file.

When i printed the forms my filled in data was almost illegible. It was very, very light and in a font with very thin characters.

The pre-printed text in the forms (the non-user data) looked just fine. Only my data was almost unreadable.

I tried several things and ended up saving it as a pdf, then exporting the pdf pages to jpg files and increasing the contrast to 100% in photo editing software, and then printing the jpg files.

It also was difficult to figure out what to enter for the stimulus money that the government had given me and my wife during 2021.

Still, i am reasonably pleased with it and would buy it again.

I’ve been using turbotax since the mid 80s – but the price keeps going up. If you want to file electronically, it includes one federal e-file, the state is another $25-40. Every year i feel like i’ve been suckered.
So… Hr block this year. A good bit cheaper. Seems to work fine. Was able to pull information from the turbotax return from the year before.
None of turbotax’s make-you-feel-optimistic musical segues – which i didn’t miss, but you might. They claim to allow up to 5 federal e-files (didn’t test that, just filed a single return) – and they wanted more $ for a state e-file. It was just $22, so i’m not feeling suckered.
Oh, if you get the download version, it’ll ask you for a ‘code’. From having entered the wrong code i can tell you that you don’t need the code to run the app – just to do the federal e-file.
After some confusion, i found the code in an email from amazon that was sent right after i bought the product.