Sometimes, taxes are more taxing than they need to be. And my taxes were made so this year because for some reason I insisted on using Block Financial's TaxCut. H&R Block, the biggest name in tax returns, should not be allowed anywhere near code ever again.

It started a few months ago, when I got the new Mac version of TaxCut, only to find it wouldn't import my return from last year (which was also done on TaxCut). Tech support said that they knew about the bug–importing just didn't work on the Mac this year, despite it being listed as a software feature. So being somewhat stuck, I went and got the PC version, which was able to read my old tax data.

So I did my return on my wife's PC, and was just about set. It was the night of April 14, and I was ready to e-file.

Then it crashed. Repeatedly. Every time it got to the software's “Final Error Check,” I got a Windows error box, indicating that TaxCut had “ended abnormally.” Despite frequent online updates, this wasn't a bug that Block could fix automatically, apparently. I found the workaround a day and a half later, after I had filed, buried on their website.

So I went back to the Mac version, was able to import the current tax year (after buying the state software online). And I found even more problems–the documentation and the help files were written for the Windows version, and they had needlessly changed the menus on the Mac version so they didn't match them.

Finally, I e-filed.

Then I was stuck waiting for the response from the IRS. The by-rote interview GUI for the software won't let you print out payment forms until you get a Declaration Control Number back from the IRS and the state. Well, it was getting late, and all I had gotten was the IRS response, so I had to figure out how to bypass the stupid UI to print my payment voucher for Maryland.

Then I had to drive to Baltimore's main post office and join all the other laggards in the Tax Drop Off Lane.

So, it looks like next year I'm going with TurboTax.