Yesterday, I received five USB flash drives containing the TaxCut software, and I intend on giving each one of these away to Consumerism Commentary readers. Last year, I didn’t receive these flash drives until April 11, a little too late for tax filing purposes. Also, last year’s drives were only 256 MB. The drives I received yesterday have four times the capacity. Even if you’ve already filed your taxes or are using other software, you can still win one of these 1 GB flash drives and erase the data. You can then put music, photos, or any other kinds of computer files on these USB drives.
I’ve never used TaxCut before, so I can’t vouch for the software’s quality. Over the last few years I’ve been using TaxAct, and before that, TurboTaxOnline. TaxCut is a popular product, and I’d suggest reading the CNET Review for pros and cons.
If you’re interested in being selected to win a USB flash drive containing TaxCut Premium Federal + State + e-file, leave a comment below on this post. The comment could be an interesting anecdote about your own tax situation or someone else’s, it could be a joke, or it could be anything else. There are two catches. I’ll only send a drive to a United States address, and you’ll need to include a real email address so I can contact you if you win.
This probably goes without saying, but we’ll only take one submission per person and IP address.
Updated March 21, 2011 and originally published March 11, 2008. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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gotta try
I’m in! Thanks for all y’all do.
Haven’t done the taxes yet. TaxCut sounds great. I’m in for one, please
I’ve only used TurboTax in the past, but would like to give TaxCut a try. I have not filed my taxes yet due to questions that arose around FSA accounts and filing multiple states. I’ve had to spend time speaking with the IRS and individual state departments to complete my return.
Count me in, please!
I always use HR block online…the link that irs.gov sends you too. It’s worked fine for me in the past, but luckily, I expect to be over the income limit for H&R’s free filing next year. I can’t imagine doing my taxes on paper anymore, so I’ll probably be buying some sort of software next year. I guess that’s not the worst problem to have!
I have a funny story.
I did my taxes and e-filed in early February.
Federal accepted everything fine, but a couple days later I get a letter from the CA FTB that I owe them $1k, instead of the $900 refund I was expecting.
Turns out the old payroll company for my employer didn’t file any of the necessary paperwork to the state for the entire 4th quarter of 2007. Jerks.
Happy ending though…I faxed them my last paycheck of the year and my W-2 and they resolved my issue. Good thing I read P.F. blogs so I knew not to spend my refund before I got it or that 5 week delay would’ve sucked. :)
Hurray for TaxCut!!!
throw my hat in.
Hey,
Appreciate your articles…they are always informative.
Put me in for one of those flash drives.
Thank you,
~Ron
I have used TaxCut the last 3 years and have been pleased every single time.
Perhaps this would abate my procrastination…
How many CPA’s does it take to complete and file your tax return?
None. Just use TaxCut and do it yourself!
So, go ahead. Make ME the butt of this joke!
I have never used any tax software. Old family friend (retired CPA) does our taxes for us and thankfully we have yet to owe. Guess all that training comes in real handy for us. Guess I could try doing it ourselves but we almost always have our taxes filed by the end of the first week of Feb and with the e-file have our returns before the end of the month and vacation scheduled shortly there after. :)
Count me in!
Being newly married this year, I think we’ll be going with an accountant. It’s still good to run the numbers through a program, though.
Please count me in as well.
I am not sure how humorous this is, but in 2007, I increased the amount of withholding on my paycheck to retain more of my money. I thought I had calculated the numbers correctly and was expecting to break about even or even pay to the feds. I received the exact same refund for my 2007 taxes as I did for my 2006 taxes despite an increase in income! (The energy tax credit was a big factor I think). So much for keeping my money and breaking even!
My frustration with taxes actually stems from being in decent shape financially. My husband and I both make OK money (especially for Kentucky), we have no kids (don’t want to do that until we are totally financially ready), and are saving for a house (gotta have that 20% to put down). Two incomes, no kids, no mortgage means that the federal withholding is never enough. I know I could up the withholding and probably will this year, but it does kind of suck to be doing the “right” things and get slammed with payments to the IRS every year…
I moved to the US a few years ago, and started filing here…Forgetting to file my low $500 income in Sweden for that same year. With the penalty of not filing, my effective tax rate for the year ended at +80% ($400).
Taxes in Sweden are generally high, 50% on the part of your income over $50k, but 80% must be some kind of record…
I could use tax preparation software this year. Two years ago I bought a stock with what looked like a 9% dividend. Turns out it is an iron ore trust and the “dividends” have to be reported on three uncommon schedules. In the past, I’ve always just filed a 1040A, but the extra hours of paperwork needed to account for $200 of iron ore proceeds almost makes it an illusory gain compared to 3.4% from ING.
Keep up the great work on CC. I always enjoy it.
To Fidelity customers, log into your account and check out the Tax Center. There should be a link to TurboTax which gives you a 25% discount. Or if you are an active trader, TurboTax might even be free via the same link.
Yabba Dabba Ding Dong!
I’ve used TaxCut religiously since Intuit became such a rotten money-grubbing company. I’ve also dumped Quicken and QuickBooks.
TaxCut is quick and easy, and more importantly, Block is not an evil entity like Intuit.
my two cents.
1 free flash drive please.
I hope these are randomly selected and not selected by cleverness of comment.
It’s my first year filing my own taxes, although my parents keep trying to get me to let their tax guy do mine too. My federal ones are fairly simple, but not my state taxes. In Feb 07 I moved from Illinois to Washington state for my first full-time job. WA has no state tax, but Illinois seems to think I owe them the money witheld from my paycheck.
Since my brain isn’t functioning today, the following comment is recycled from my web page:
Usually I would have finished doing the taxes by now. Warmer weather is my cue to hunker down and get busy. Today it’s 25° and snowing. It doesn’t feel like it’s time yet.
Doing taxes is also my excuse to avoid going outside when I don’t feel like it just because it’s nice outside. When spring comes, everybody who can’t wait to go out thinks everybody else feels the same way. I don’t.
Guess if I won this I might actually decide to file my taxes this year ;)
Well I’m sure they will get done eventually, but it might be fun to try it out myself rather than bringing them in as I have in the past.
Being a fan of TaxCut and having not yet done my taxes this year, I would love to win one of these.
I’d like to enter! I used TaxCut a couple years back, then did my taxes manually last year. This time around, with 3 W-2s and a stock sale to account for, it’s time to go with the software again.
I would like USB copy of TaxCut. This year is the first time I sold shares of mutual funds. While my 1099-B statement contained information about average basis, due to automatic reinvestment it was difficult to determine what percentage of this could be treated as long term capital gains versus short term. Due to this fact, I do not plan to reinvest dividends on mutual funds held in a taxable account in the future.
This year I’m determined to do my taxes myself. My parents want me to go to an accountant because I just bought a home and got married, but I don’t think it’s worth the $125.00 the accountant wants to charge me. I’m pretty sure I’d rather have that money in my pocket!
I just hope I get a copy of TaxCut!
Last year I filed my taxes through a website (don’t remember the name) and they didn’t use an electronic signature! The IRS sent me a letter saying that I would HAVE to paper file unless I used one this year….
Well I already filed my taxes, and they accepted them, but it would be really nice to have tax software since it cost me $30 to be walked through and file for state, and nothing to file federal.
Why does everyone want my money? lol
hello put me in also
I have used Tax Cut for 4 years now, and I have to say I am dissapointed with their State program, I had to get all the State forms and figure them myself, then enter the info for part of it, other than that it is a good program. I think you should enter people based on the length of their comment, maybe one entry per word in the comment?? Sound fair?
I’m not sure if this is an anecdote or not, but my wife and I finally got to the point where we use a financial planner. Mostly we hired him to help us determine where to invest our money. A couple of years ago he advised us to get a CPA because our taxes were going to be fairly complicated. We thought that sounded like a decent idea. It wouldn’t cost a bunch of money, it would save us a lot of time, and maybe, just maybe, the human CPA could save us more than the Computer Program. Of course, our advisor recommended a CPA for us.
We went to pick up our return about a week later. The accountant had forgotten to write up our MORTGAGE INTEREST as a deduction. We just rolled our eyes and started sobbing. Oh the incompetence! So, we sent the whole packet back and got a second return from the CPA’s office several days later. Combing through the records we found they hadn’t counted our Church donations as tax deductions. The single biggest charitable donation we make every year? Holy smokes. Strike 2!
We weren’t able to find any more mistakes by the CPA, but needless to say, we have not gone back to that CPA again, nor any CPA for that matter. It’s electronic or nothing now.
Bring on the Tax Cut!
-Chris
I have no witty comment, nor a good tax story (funny or otherwise), but I’m a huge fan of your blog and I really appreciate all you do!
I can also really really use a 1GB flash drive. :)
Thanks!
Susan
Count me in too!!
I have already filed my taxes this year, but enter me.
Thanks for the giveaway!
I enjoy your blog regularly. Thanks.
In the 80s, when the investment tax credit was available for new business purchases of equipment, etc., my tax advisor called me to say that the buzz was ITC was going to end soon. He said that if I were planning any new purchases, I’d better do it right away to take advantage of the credit. I dutifully went right out and bought a new Saab as my new business car, thinking I’d slipped in under the wire. It turned out the joke was on me; the IRS abolished the ITC RETROACTIVE to January of that year, leaving me with a new Saab and no ITC. Oh well!
Atticus
I’ve been procrastinating on doing my taxes (meant to do them this weekend) and so winning one would be great!
We’re at the point where our deductions are near the standard deduction, so for 2007 we took the standard. For 2008, I paid property taxes in January and will again in December. I also pushed my Dec 07 mortgage payment to early Jan so I’ll end up with 13 payments (including some interest) in 2008. For 2009, we’ll go back to standard deductions for the free money. So, I guess I really need to win this next year actually, because that’ll be much more complex than our 2007 taxes will be.
I would love the software. Pick me!
Please include me.
BTW, a quick note about my personal finance situation and the importance of an emergency fund.
My wife’s mac finally crashed after 7 years so we had to purchase a new laptop along with the associated software she needed to continue her at home job, web design.
Also we had to pack the family up for an emergency trip across country to visit relatives after the death of my grandmother.
Together, these two items wiped out our emergency fund. Something we didn’t have 3 years ago. We are going to have to work to build it back up, but hopefully we won’t have any other emergencies in the short-term to derail us.
I am in
This just reminded me that I still yet to do my tax return. This is the first year that I will not be getting a tax refund from the IRS since I graduated from college and took on a pretty good-paying job immediately afterwards, plus, I’ll be filing as single and I don’t have any deductions besides my 401k. I used to file taxes for the whole family every year, and it is usually the case that I will receive a check but my parents will write out a check. So they always complain. But this year, I think it would be the opposite case.
The income tax became “legal” when the 16th Amendment was ratified back in 1913.
How did we survive as a country prior to that point? (sarcasm)
Since 1913 our government has become an overgrown beast willing to take from the hard working and give to all who have their lazy hands out.
okay… here’s my entry without a joke this time (hey, you asked).
I’d love to try for a flash drive! I’d really like to get a refund, instead of paying the IRS $12. Well, at least the withholdings were pretty close this year! In 2005/2006 I spent about half of each year working abroad, and the gov’t tried to tax me on those earnings, even after I had already paid Japanese taxes. They shouldn’t do that. It took 3 months and a Japanese interpreter to straighten out my W2s from Japan and get my refund.
Taxes, yes I’ve filed this year
Feared I’d owe them very dear
Almost had a heart attack
When I saw how much I’d get back
Yea for TaxCut. (And they only sent me two CDs so I’d love to make off with one of their thumb drives… : )
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