TaxCut for Mac (Universal) is Back for 2006 Returns

[11/27] [Updated] TaxCut for Mac (Universal) is Back for 2006 Returns

After a one-year hiatus, H&R Block is again offering TaxCut for the Mac and it is a Universal Application, running natively on both Intel-based and PowerPC-based. There are three 2006 versions: Federal for 19.95, Federal+State for $29.95 and Federal+State+E-file for $59.95. The latter includes e-filing both federal and state returns, a total savings of nearly $2 over the $16 e-file fees for each return with the other two TaxCut versions. Each version is offered as a download or on a CD.

For many years some of the staff used TaxCut, while others used TurboTax for Mac (formerly MacInTax), for our tax returns. TaxCut was less expensive, was first to run natively on Mac OS X, had a better interview interface in the opinion of some and had better reviews. This year TaxCut is Universal while apparently TurboTax runs on Rosetta emulation on Intel-based Macs.[Correction: TurboTax 2006 is a Universal Application. Thanks, Bill George.] TaxCut 2006 is also less expensive by $15 in list price for the federal and a state return ($29.95 vs $44.95). We could not find how much TurboTax charges to e-file tax returns for 2006.

However, after switching back to TurboTax for 2005 it will be a difficult decision to go back to TaxCut, especially since TurboTax is now offered as a great deal with Quicken or other Mac software like Norton Internet Security 3.0 for Mac, Norton Confidential for Mac software or Norton AntiVirus 10.0 for Mac. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]