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Excellent suggestions - I'll be sending similar e-mail to Intuit when I finish here. Thanks.
Information from H & R Block customer service representative which other former Intuit users may find useful:
1. If one saves the 2021 Turbo Tax files in .pdf format, they can be imported into H & R Block 2022 without reentry of 1099 addresses, charitable amount carryovers, etc. The import of the .pdf files should put one in the same position as when TT imported the prior year.
2. I have "played" with DeductionPro thanks to the excellent customer service rep who answered the phone promptly, volunteered to send me a 2021 copy so that I could work with it, stayed on the line guiding me through the software without activation. DeductionPro has a much more efficient user input interface, valuations are comparables, and adding items not listed along with their valuation is allowed. The rep suggested that for the remainder of 2022, I simply enter into DeductionPro, let it do the valuations and calculations, and print out the reports so that I can enter summary lines. Helpful! Very different experience than we are having with Intuit.
I did ask this very professional customer rep to pass along to H & R Block the very desirable feature of being able to enter after each donation instead of the end of the year -- in other words, a module which could be imported. She said she would do so.
In turn, she asked me to pass along the fact to other Intuit users that you can import into H&R Block easily and can obtain valuations and calculations from their software as well. I might add, my experience is that their customer service tells me H&R block values its customers and seeks new customers. They are in the tax business and not about to become insolvent, as I think Intuit's drastic, otherwise inexplicable action with ItsDeductible, may indicate.
Sooner or later, I think we will all have to change from TT. After two decades of becoming familiar with it, that is an "ouch". But, my experience with H & R Block gives me hope that we will be better off for having made the change sooner rather than later.
Thanks for your helpful reply. I will definitely check out the H&R Block solution ... and will not be sorry to be a FORMER TurboTax user, as Intuit clearly DOES NOT respect or value its customers. Thanks again and good luck!
Thanks, good information. But are you sure they said to save TT information as a pdf? Usually can’t import data from a pdf. Maybe a txf file?
I agree, please do not discontinue It’s Deductible! It’s a valuable service, i would pay to keep using it!
Fortfun,
The H&R Block rep did say to save one's completed TT return as a .pdf and that this file could be imported into H & R Block.
That may be because TT gives one the option to print the completed tax return and/or save it as a .pdf. I don't believe TT gives users the option to save the completed return as a .txt
I also question whether a .pdf file can be imported into H&R Block Tax ... or any other tax preparation program, for that matter. I suspect it is the saved TurboTax .TAX file that can be imported into H&R Block.
@rej wrote:
I also question whether a .pdf file can be imported into H&R Block Tax ... or any other tax preparation program, for that matter. I suspect it is the saved TurboTax .TAX file that can be imported into H&R Block.
I think, but am in no way certain, that importing from a PDF will result in a minimal amount of information being transferred. It would most likely be limited to name, address, SSN, and like information.
The .tax files are proprietary and I suspect, but again am not certain, that importing would also result in a limited amount of information being transferred.
Regardless of the result, it would absolutely not be prudent to blindly accept any transfer from a prior year without thoroughly scrutinizing each and every item transferred.
@csteph8550 wrote:I did ask this very professional customer rep to pass along to H & R Block the very desirable feature of being able to enter after each donation instead of the end of the year....
How much of a timesaver is this if donations for the entire year have to be entered individually into the program after it is released (near the end of the year) as opposed to entering them after each one is made throughout the year (and then importing)?
I understand that the program handles the valuations, but then the IRS does not have to accept the valuations assigned. There have been issues with ItsDeductible in that regard. I cannot imagine how DeductionPro would be able to avoid the same issues.
Pls refer to H&R block link on how to import both H&R Block and Turbo Tax files. Also pasted below.
https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/support/online/technical-issues-online/...
Though the software from H&R Block helps you import last year’s tax return and tells you what you need, you still might have some questions about the process.
First, let’s start with the files you can import in H&R Block Tax Software. There are two types of files you can use to import your tax return from last year:
If you have both a tax data file and a PDF, the tax data file will let us import more tax return data than a PDF of your return.
To import last year’s tax return to H&R Block Tax Software, follow these steps:
@csteph8550 wrote:
Pls refer to H&R block link on how to import both H&R Block and Turbo Tax files. Also pasted below.
I actually read that page on the H&R Block web site and I would continue to urge caution.
First of all, nowhere is it indicated how much tax return data will be imported nor whether the process is entirely "hands-off".
Also, the article clearly has not been updated since 2019 since it refers to a return for the 2019 tax year.
Caveat emptor.
I posted the following review of TurboTax Deluxe 2021 at Amazon with 1 star:
I've happily used TurboTax since 1992 and ItsDeductible since 2006. ItsDeductible is a web-based tool from Intuit that supports entry and valuation of charitable donations of items with valuation, money, mileage, and stock. Contributions can be imported into TurboTax Deluxe and Premier. It's a major time-saver for handling charitable donations.
Although ItsDeductible is still available for tax year 2021, Intuit has decided to discontinue it effective 10/17/2022. H&R Block has something called DeductionPro that might be similar.
For Deduction Pro,
1.) Do you have to first buy a specific year of software to use it? Not a rolling online thing, like Its Deductible was?
2.) Is it only available during tax time, and not during the rest of the year like ID was, so that you can put your donations in as you make them?
Mint- yeah, no thanks. Call me old school, but I don't want to link all my bank accounts if I don't have to. I used the desktop version of TT.
Boy, I hope someone reading these threads comes up with a better solution for all of us. Nobody has hours upon hours to deal with donations during tax time, but 5 mins here and there, sure.
I have been using Turbo Tax for almost 25 years. Discontinuing ItsDeductible will probably lose me as a customer. In my e-mail to Intuit urging them to reverse their decision, I pointed out that they will be forcing many long-time customers to look for other options like H & R Block’s Deduction Pro, and they will lose many previously loyal customers over this decision. Intuit may be able to cut a few Expenses by no longer servicing ItsDeductible, but I think they will lose much more in lost Income when they lose many of their customers over this poor customer service decision. Everybody should e-mail, and we'll see if they actually listen. If not, they will lose a lot of customers.
https://www.intuit.com/company/executives/
Your comment about why NOT to use MINT which requires access to personal finance accounts is right on and mentioned by many here. Why risk access to personal finances in order to just be able to calculate donation deductions??
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