TaxACT

TaxAct is very confusing now and will only offer help if you pay more money. They have gone downhill fast. I am going with H&R Block from now on.

Wanted insurance information? Must be selling that and they bumped me to 47 dollars to file a schedule c on my return am going to call the IRS

I have always done my taxes by hand. At first with pencil, then pen. Then came the computer. Tax software was easy for me to justify spending money on. Perhaps a hidden deduction could be found to justify the expense.

I used Turbo Tax. It didn't find me that elusive deduction, but I enjoyed using it. It asked me an endless amount of questions and I think it even took longer than to do them by hand. I was nice having a soft copy and everything well organized. I was hooked.

This year I decided to try TaxAct. TaxAct is much cheaper than its rival TurboTax. I found a site that reviewed Tax software and ranked TaxAct a close second to Turbo Tax.

Using my Staples gift card that I won from QuiBids (TMI, I know), I bought TaxAct Deluxe Federal and State. Now, the store had a more expensive version. I thought it was "Premium" but looking at their website, I see they offer FREE, Deluxe, and Small Business.

This was my first problem with the software. Should I spend the extra $10 or not. Or not, according to the box. So, I didn't.

Well the darn thing kept asking me if I wanted to upgrade. And every-time I clicked on more-info or help, I got the cheesy nag screen demanding more money for the information that should be included. To do my taxes, I had to search IRS website for the answers and enter the information into TaxAct.

I needed to search for a form, but couldn't find it. It was a common form, so I had to go, Form by Form through the included forms to find it. Apparently TaxAct doesn't use the Form number as a search-able key.

I also found it a little confusing to get back to where you were when you leave interview session to jump to another location - or - when you exit the program and re-enter and don't select "Start Where You Left Off" (say if you wanted to make changes first).

The interface was nice and filing was pretty straight forward. I recommend the software for someone who knows a lot about taxes. For novices like me (if there are any) I would pass.

These losers cannot even get their software to work, do not let these clowns do your taxes, you will regret it

Never again will I use Taxact to do my taxes again nor any other taxes on the internet for that matter

TaxAct threw on 2 last minute cost

Online 2022 Deluxe Edition Federal Return $46.95

Refund Transfer Fee (pay fee from refund) $54.95

Hoursof waiting on phone to assist on software... awful customer service --No help support-not knowledgeable support

I gave up on questions. I will never use TaxACT again in this lifetime [because it will require a lifetime for them to respond to any questions].

Was not intuitive, was not helpful, just frustrating and overpriced. I will be using a different site next year. Next!

Crazy long hold times, the phone system will have you wait forever and they often don't return calls or mail at all

I had been using TaxAct for more than 6 years. I always have had good experiences until this year. I had 2 problems, neither has been resolved. The first is more of an IRS issue where I had to file an amended return and the IRS has yet to even acknowledge it so what they think I owe is very different than what I really owe. However, TaxAct's "expert" Audit Protection Service didn't even understand the IRS rules around one of the line items (I actually educated them on the topic by pointing them to an IRS publication!). They (or I should say, we) crafted a letter to the IRS for follow-up; I'm not sure when it will be acknowledged. The second is a true bait-n-switch on their Refer-A-Friend program. The terms that are currently stated on their website are very clear: "A 'new' TaxAct customer refers to anyone who did not file with TaxAct in the previous tax year." With that being said, the PREVIOUS year refers to 2019. I referred my son this year to file his 2020 taxes; he did file with TaxAct in 2018 and previous years but filed them himself in 2019. After following up with TaxAct since they never sent the referral bonus, I received an email from Amanda in their Support Department and I quote, "Unfortunately the referral reward was declined as it was determined the referred friend has already been a TaxAct customer in 2018, 2017 and prior years. The purpose of the Refer-A-Friend program is to recruit new customers who have never heard of TaxAct or who have never used our services, that includes last year, but not limited to the year prior. I will put in a request to review the language used on our help pages to indicate a more accurate description of eligibility for the new customers recruited with the Refer-A-Friend program." Regardless of what they think is the Refer-A-Friend "purpose", the terms that are CURRENTLY stated on their website are very clear and should be honored. Amanda chose not to honor them and ignored further follow-up attempts; classic bait-switch. I am definitely done with TaxAct.

It repeatedly gives many unnecessary Alerts, such as for 1099-B forms when you correctly enter VARIOUS in the date acquired field for funds acquired through several different purchases as is stated on the IRS INSTRUCTIONS. If your 1099-R form is blank for the (Illinois) State Distribution, the unhelpful Alert FAILS to notify you that you only need to enter your Gross Distribution amount to correct the input. Most frustrating is that now it seems to be almost IMPOSSIBLE TO TALK TO ANY OF THEIR PROMISED TAX EXPERTS: telephoning their Contact Support at *******600 gives a recorded Menu of number to press (I pressed 2 for assistance with filing the 2022 taxes, and then another 2 for their next selection, never getting a number for talking with a human tax expert), invariably, even with any other number selections, each time ending with the repeated statement that I should talk to someone on their Xpert Assist. BUT SELECTING IT ON THE TaxAct computer display screen repeatedly gives a popup that states: Our experts are currently assisting other callers (in bold fonts)... Please try back later, or on our next business day. You can visit the Help Center in the top-right corner for further assistance,...
And below this displaying their regular hours, a Try Again Latter button, and a Go to Help Center button.
Pushing the Try Again button puts you into a ridiculous infinite loop that I wasted several hours in without any possibility that that TaxAct would care enough about their paying customers to even ask me if they could at least put me on a call back list and CALL ME BACK LATER, INSTEAD OF FORCING ME TO STAY IN A REPEATED LOOP FOR MANY HOURS, DAYS, AND WEEKS! Their so-called Help Center is much WOST than a Google search, only giving a several irrelevant links without any human experts help around. Does TaxAct even care about all the hours that their customers cannot reach ANY OF THEIR EXPERTS ON THEIR INACCESSIBLE XPERT ASSIST? DO NOT USE TAXACT UNLESS THEY MAKE SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENTS AND START PROVING THE ASSISTANCE THEY PROMISED WITH THIER ALL-INCLUSIVE $133.95 bundle.