Tax software deals

Wow. I don't remember the last year I did tax return by hand. I definitely remember running tax software on Win 3.1. Was there ever any tax program for MSDOS

I'm pretty sure there was, I think it was called Personal Tax Edge by Parsons Technology, before Intuit bought them out sometime in the early 90's. I'm not really a hoarder but I bet I could find that disc, I still have all my old tax records dating back to 1979.
 
RetiredAndLovingIt said:
Wow. I don't remember the last year I did tax return by hand. I definitely remember running tax software on Win 3.1. Was there ever any tax program for MSDOS

I'm pretty sure there was, I think it was called Personal Tax Edge by Parsons Technology, before Intuit bought them out sometime in the early 90's. I'm not really a hoarder but I bet I could find that disc, I still have all my old tax records dating back to 1979.
Click to expand...

Tax Edge was the first software I used in the early 90s. Yes, it started with DOS. Bob Parsons is a "unique" guy. He could have retired on this program alone, but instead became a billionaire with GoDaddy.
 
A trip down memory lane

Just for the fun of it. Remember any of these from 1991? Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/12/science/personal-computers-trying-early-bird-tax-programs.html

We've seen six early-bird tax programs so far: Andrew Tobias's Taxcut 1040 ($89.95 from MECA Software Inc. of Fairfield, Conn.), Taxcut EZ/A ($29.95, also from MECA), Turbotax for DOS ($79.95 from Chipsoft Inc. of San Diego), J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax (or "YIT," as the manual calls it, $74.95 from Simon & Schuster Software of New York City), EasyTax ($79.95 from Timeworks Inc. of Northbrook, Ill.) and Personal Tax Edge ($49 from Parsons Technology Inc. of Hiawatha, Iowa). All are for DOS computers. Windows and Macintosh programs are a little trickier to program, so they will arrive later. Taxcut EZ/A is for people who file the 1040EZ or 1040A forms.
Click to expand...
 
JoeWras said:
Tax Edge was the first software I used in the early 90s.
Click to expand...
I have two years of "Personal Tax Edge" (which I forgot that I used). Also in that era, I used TurboTax once. Mostly just kept with TaxCut. I usually squirrel away the install CD, but might have tossed the extremely old ones. I've been creating a non-standard directory "TaxCutyy" under "tax" so that when I move computers, it's easy to drag the folder over. Not that I ever go back and look at any of these, but I could if I wanted to. I've been putting a "print to PDF" final version in the folder too, since TaxCut comes with the print to PDF feature (almost worth the $23 bucks itself).
 

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Received my H&R from Newegg yesterday. Loaded and transferred last year's data over. Since I know my income; pension and SS, was able to populate pretty much everything. I owe an additional $1,007 to the feds on a gross $91K income. They are penalizing me $3 for that.
 
I received my mailed H&R Block tax software code , which was purchased from NewEgg.

I'm wondering if others have downloaded and installed it, and felt it was legit.

Reason I'm wondering is because the download site is: https://gethrblock.com/crns
Instead of some hrblock.com subdomain or page.

Then when the actual download starts, it comes from:
https://camry-webapi.azurewebsites.net

I expected the downloads would be from hrblock.com
 
Sunset said:
I received my mailed H&R Block tax software code , which was purchased from NewEgg.

I'm wondering if others have downloaded and installed it, and felt it was legit.

Reason I'm wondering is because the download site is: https://gethrblock.com/crns
Instead of some hrblock.com subdomain or page.

Then when the actual download starts, it comes from:
https://camry-webapi.azurewebsites.net

I expected the downloads would be from hrblock.com
Click to expand...

I got my code, downloaded and migrated past year information over. Heck, I've even filled it all out, projecting remaining earnings for the year. No problem. It's legit.
 
Sunset said:
I received my mailed H&R Block tax software code , which was purchased from NewEgg.

I'm wondering if others have downloaded and installed it, and felt it was legit.

Reason I'm wondering is because the download site is: https://gethrblock.com/crns
Instead of some hrblock.com subdomain or page.

Then when the actual download starts, it comes from:
https://camry-webapi.azurewebsites.net

I expected the downloads would be from hrblock.com
Click to expand...

I bought mine directly from HR Block and my URL was:

https://smrtinterface.hrblock.com/downloads/XXXX/XXXX/HRBlock_Deluxe-State-DL.exe
 
Getting rid of annoying "DRAFT FORM" overlay

H&R Block plasters a "draft form" message 4 times per page, oftentimes obscuring the values on the form. I wrote a quickie for myself, and figured I'd let the folks here use it (if they trusted me to run code on their machine). All this does is read a PDF and remove any text larger than 16, writing out to a separate file.

You put the HRBlock.pdf in a folder with RemoveBigText.exe, then run it with an output file name:

RemoveBigText HRBlock.pdf HRBlockCleaned.pdf

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10yI3BOcQWQgeGFBgMx-iV_QdCYaozFEd/view?usp=sharing
Click to expand...
If you code yourself, I'll give you the source code.

ETA: Should I try to get this running on Andriod?
ETA2: It's a few lines of Java that I pretty much lifted as-is from StackOverflow.
 

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Paulz said:
Yes it is. I removed some of the information as it would serve no purpose. Point was to show the OP where my link originated from.
Click to expand...

Good thing you removed that information, as it included your registration code , which you probably recognized.

I used a hex editor to look at the tiny exe file I downloaded from gethrblock.com
I saw they embeded my registration code and name .. etc..
And they gave the subdomain URL for HrBlock, passing in the information. Probably similar to your link.

So I just copied out the information from the .exe and pasted it into the browser, and downloaded the H&R software.

I'm feeling more comfortable as I got the actual software directly from H&R block.
I installed it and it works :)
 
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Well, don't rush to buy TurboTax. I downloaded the 2020 version from Costco and it's pretty much useless. I've got an estimated version of 2020 in my 2019 version- at this point nearly everything for 2020 is in or can be estimated and I can input dummy forms with summary dividends, interest, CG distributions, etc.

The 2020 version won't even let me enter SS and pension income. They claim the IRS hasn't finalized forms yet. Not much I can do but wait.:mad:
 
athena53 said:
Well, don't rush to buy TurboTax. I downloaded the 2020 version from Costco and it's pretty much useless. I've got an estimated version of 2020 in my 2019 version- at this point nearly everything for 2020 is in or can be estimated and I can input dummy forms with summary dividends, interest, CG distributions, etc.

The 2020 version won't even let me enter SS and pension income. They claim the IRS hasn't finalized forms yet. Not much I can do but wait.:mad:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I was just about to do the same with 2020 HR Block software; if it doesn't work I will use my 2019 as an approximation.
 
As discussed in another thread, Fidelity is offering free TurboTax Premier 2020 to certain clients. If you qualify, the offer will show up towards the bottom of the Portfolio/All Accounts/Summary page.

The "Get Started Now" link brings you to the TurboTax site offering online for free, including fed e-file, free states and state e-file. Scroll far down to see the download option which includes 5 fed e-files and one state download, but state e-file costs extra.
 
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There is another thread going that points out the deals on Turbotax available today. Available at Amazon (today only, 12/26), essentially $10 off. However, the title of the thread only references Costco, so non-Costco people like me may miss it.

E-R thread: https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/costco-annual-turbotax-discounts-107069.html

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/TurboTax-Software-Additional-Exclusive-Download/dp/B08KJQ1MW1/

The deal is that you get a $10 Amazon card. Howver, you must be a little careful to select this option, as they also offer an option without the card at the same price. :facepalm:
 
I've been using Premier most of the time.

Mainly through Fidelity. I think I paid $10 as the difference rather than go for Deluxe.
 
Didn't see this thread earlier so posted in another TurboTax thread. TT is on sale currently at Amazon for $30 off Premier and other deals on the other versions both download and CD packages.
 
H&R Block Federal and State at Amazon is currently $22.49.
 

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