No. Of course not. That was a trashy attempt at getting your interest. I'm sorry. But since you're here...

I've used Kiplinger's Tax Cut for the last three years in a row. My first experience was doing a federal return and dual state return, since I had moved from Utah to California mid-year. At the time when I bought it, there was a deal of getting a free state program when you bought federal, so it was the best deal available. No extra charge for using two state's worth of programming either!

Installation is very simple, the most unsavvy of computer users will have no problem. In typical Windows fashion it walks you through step by step. Subsequent year installs go just as smoothly, with prompts that ask you if you want last year's information to be imported into the new one. Very time saving if nothing has changed in your situation. No cumbersome "import" commands to deal with! One annoying feature is that it tries to get you to install MSN. But realize what you are clicking on and you can bypass that easily.

Once installed, you'll be prompted to go online and register as well as update the program. Since they have to manufacture and ship well in advance, some new tax laws and requirements may be outdated. The update solves this quickly for both state and federal. A word of caution though, the update doesn't like to work through firewall software, so if you have one, you'll want to disable it before attempting the registration and update.

Now you're set to go. Gather your docs, and the program will walk you through with (usually) easy to answer questions.Interview format, just make sure to read the questions thoroughly before deciding whether or not it applies to you or not; some topics may be hidden within broader question bases.

The part I don't like is that you can't exactly click a summary tab, see a "virtual print out" of your tax return as it would look like if you prepared it by hand. Maybe this is my old school way of thinking, but I would feel safer knowing all my info is there at a glance. As it is, you CAN review your entries, but it's not an intuitive way of doing it. You have to hunt a bit.

There's the option of E-File. Or you can print and send in the old fashioned way. That's my choice, since I have to pay anyway, no use rushing *that*!

All in all, a good program. Better than doing it manually (ahem), but there MAY be better programs out there.


Recommended: Yes