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No More Tax Tears

TurboTax and Mac-In-Tax mop up the misery.

By Wally David

 

EVERY YEAR people around the country dread income tax season. It starts right after the first of the year, when all sorts of tax documents start flooding our mailboxes. Then the hand wringing over finding receipts and other critical information begins. All that is followed by the daunting task of pouring over the book full of tax forms from the federal government and figuring which ones you need to fill out—and all by April 15

Well, Intuit has a solution to some of your problems. They can't stop the tax documents from coming and can't look for your receipts for you, but they can sure make dealing with the government easier! TurboTax Deluxe and Mac-In-Tax can lead you through the entire tax-filing process in an -to-understand fashion.

Elizabeth Dougherty, Product Manager for Intuit came to the February General Meeting of the Danbury Area Computer Society to show us just how easy it to do your taxes on the computer. While Elizabeth did not have much time to explain the final version of TurboTax Deluxe, shedid touch briefly on the features that make the program easy to use.

First, you are asked to answer easy-to-understand interview questions. TurboTax places your responses in the correct places and performs calculations automatically, and then thoroughly reviews the return, ensuring nothing has been omitted or overlooked. The program also alerts you to missed deductions and entries that could possibly trigger an IRS audit.

TurboTax, equipped with every tax form taxpayers will most likely need, saves time by calculating taxes automatically and letting youknow what effect changes made to a return have on your refund or amount due. TurboTax saves money by pointing out deductions and other tax-saving opportunities (both for this year and next), reviewing each return for potentially costly errors and comparing individual returns to national averages, allowing customers to see how aggressively they are taking deductions.

There are three ways to file your completed return: You can print out the entire return and mail it to the IRS; you can print out a shortened PC version, which prints only the lines on the forms that you need to submit, making for a much smaller printout; or you can file electronically, letting the program guide you through the process. There is a charge of $9.95 to use this method, but it saves a lot of time, allowing you to get any refund due you much more quickly.

The deluxe version of TurboTax differs from the basic version in only two important ways. First, it comes with multimedia videos that offer insight and advice at various points during the interview process. Not essential, this is nevertheless a nice feature to have. The second difference is free online filing. In the basic version, there is a $9.95 charge. But electronic filing is included in the deluxe version, so for the $10 extra you pay for it, you get both features—a bargain.

Intuit offers a free downloadable trial version of TurboTax from its Web site at www.intuit.com. It is fully functional, and its only limitation is that you can't view, print, or file the return. If you like the program, you can call Intuit's 800 number and register it with a credit card. They will then give you an unlocking code, which will let you view, print, and file your return.

Intuit really seems to want make the tax-preparation process easier for all of us. With TurboTax and Mac-In-Tax, they do just that.


Wally David is a DACS director and a member of the dacs.doc editorial committee. He is the Network Administrator for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a non-profit trade association for the gun industry. He can be reached via e-mail at wallydavid@myself.com.


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