For those who may be purchasing H&R Block's Tax Cut online and plan on utilizing their offer for a free version of Microsoft Money 2005 Standard (after rebate), you can find the rebate form here (or in PDF format ).

I had a terrible time tracking this information down. Neither H&R Block or Microsoft seems to have their ducks in line, and multiple calls to 800 numbers came up short. In the end, my brother was able to track down the information.

I will once again point out the free-ness of TaxACT. I've used it for about five years now and it's just as good as any of the other income tax software solutions.

I agree. I use TaxACT Online.

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I will once again point out the free-ness of TaxACT. I've used it for about five years now and it's just as good as any of the other income tax software solutions.

I didn't even know it existed, or I would have gone that route. Most of my earnings for the next several years will be overseas earnings, so I won't have to pay alot of taxes, but I'll be sure to check into it next year for the amount I do have to pay.

I've been a mostly faithful user of TurboTax, except for the year that it had weirdo copy protection built-in, when I used H&R TaxCut. I've already prepared my taxes this year with TurboTax, so I decided to download the free version of TaxAct and see how the numbers came out in comparison to TurboTax (and to double-check my work, since my taxes this year are more complex than in previous years).

In a nutshell, TurboTax had me getting a slightly bigger refund (~$150 more), but that's probably a result of my typing the numbers incorrectly into TaxAct, particularly for the minutae of my business expenses (although it appears that TaxAct may have screwed up its automatic handling of some foreign tax that was paid, on my behalf, by a mutual fund that I own). I'm sure that if I'd gotten everything in there the same way, the final number would have been the same.

In terms of the user interface, TaxAct is pretty annoying. For starters, TaxAct wants to save your tax data in C:\Program Files\2nd Story Software\TaxAct rather than the directory of your choice. Give me a break. TaxAct likewise nags you throughout the interview to spend the extra bucks for the Deluxe Version. TurboTax (I've got the "basic" version) generally leaves you alone. The "interview" style of both products is comparable, but TurboTax may be a little easier to deal with and zoom around. One noticable different is that TurboTax lets you see "my return" or "all forms", whereas TaxAct only lets you see every single form. TaxAct likewise seems to ask you more questions than you really need to answer. For example, I want to deduct some of the miles I drove with my car as a business expense. TurboTax was happy to do it for me without too much trouble. TaxAct started getting into all of these details about how I might be depreciating my car. I just want my standard $0.375/mile deduction, nothing fancy.

So, is TurboTax worth $30? You get Federal E-Filing for free (after annoying mail-in rebate), where TaxAct wants to charge you for the privilege. You get slight ease-of-use improvements. You get easy importing of data from Quicken. You get free downloading from your bank / stock broker (which TaxAct also wants to charge for). All of these things can save time, pariticularly if you've got a complex investment portfolio and don't want to spend all afternoon doing data entry.

In summary, I'd say that as your tax situation gets more complex, TurboTax starts looking better, and the price is pretty cheap. Still, it's hard to beat free, and TaxAct is filling out all of the same forms and is getting the right answers.

I've heard a rumor that they all use the same engine and just have slightly different front-ends. I've used TurboTax in the past, mostly for my mom, but not for a couple of years. (Her taxes got really complicated and it was easier to just pay someone else to do it.) At the time, I thought that they were both irritating in different ways. I have noticed that TaxAct will sometimes ask questions that don't seem to be relevant and I sometimes have a hard time figuring out where to put certain pieces of information. But TurboTax ended up being really chatty and claiming that it knew what I wanted to do when it didn't. I don't think that TurboTax is worth $30 more, personally. TaxAct only charges $8 to eFile your Federal return, so there's still a difference of $22 and I don't think it's worth that much more, either.

Hmm. It seems you can actually download TurboTax for $20 now. That's a better deal. You're still talking $12, though, and that assumes you want to eFile. (It seems stupid to pay money in order to pay the taxman faster if you owe.)

I just didn't see anything in TurboTax that compelled me to spend money when there was an equivalent product for free.