Sarasota PC Monitor
TAXCUT PLATINUM
A Software Review
by Herb Goldstein
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.As the familiar tune goes, "It's that most horrible time of the year!" Yes, it's time to settle up with Uncle Sam for his share of your hard earned cash in 2002, and you need to get it right because Uncle has no sense of humor. To stay on the good side of the IRS you can have a accountant or tax prep professional tackle your return. If you want to save some big bucks, however, you can do the job yourself with some good tax preparation software like TaxCut. Using reasonable care and not too much effort, you can produce a result that will compete with a professional preparation at a small fraction of the cost. What's more, you will walk away with a much better handle on your tax situation for now and later, along with a plethora of ideas on how to minimize your tax load in both current and future returns.
Tax prep software is not necessarily for everyone. If your picture is very complex or you have many business ramifications, you may not be able to avoid professional services. However, for a very good many of you, tax prep software will work just as effectively.
When it comes to tax prep software, the leader of the pack is H&R Block's TaxCut. It ran neck and neck with Intuit's TurboTax for years, but starting last year, professional reviewers gave first place honors to TaxCut. This year, the gap is even wider with some really neat and polished features provided in the Block software.
As in the past you can select several ways of producing your return. The simplest is to utilize the "interview method." TaxCut will present questions in different categories which you will answer using the documentation on your W2's, 1099's and other assorted income and expense corroboration. By the time your questions are all answered, you will have produced a complete return to print or submit electronically to the IRS that will be the equal of any professionally prepared return TaxCut will audit it for errors or discrepancies and suggest corrections, as well as offer specific advice on how to minimize your taxes in future years.
H&R Block, publishers of TaxCut, is the time-honored and most popular professional tax service in the country. They offer several free services to TaxCut users including electronic filing of your return with guaranteed accuracy. Here are some of the other services provided in the software:
- Consultation and review of your return by a Block tax advisor prior to IRS filing.
- Ask a tax advisor- Real time tax advice from a Block professional
- Tax law assistant- Explains the ramifications of tax law changes.
- Education planner- Achieve educational financing goals.
- Home mortgage advisor- Tax advantages of refinancing or consolidating debt.
- Retirement planning- Optimize retirement savings.
- Online tax planning- personalized planning tools to cut taxes and achieve financial goals.
Previous editions of TaxCut were produced in two versions, standard and deluxe. For this year, a new Platinum premium level version has been added containing some very useful enhanced additional "assistant" features: 1.Home office assistant- Tax advantages in establishing a home office.
2. Rental property assistant- Tax advantages in rental properties.
3. Stock options advisor- Tax consequences of stock options.
4. Capital gains and loss assistant- Minimize tax liabilities and maximize tax benefits associated with capital gains.
5. Business expense assistant- Maximize business expense deductions.
6. Depreciation assistant- Money saving advice about depreciating assets
Also included is a retirement savings enhancer, a 9 year tax preview, and one free online or email personal session with a Block tax advisor.
An improved feature common to all TaxCut versions this year is an entry manager which will flag tentative entries and track data to specific forms. An improved audit prevention control is also present.
Using last year's data (the only available at the moment), TaxCut performed flawlessly and with ease. Along with its many enhanced features, it is our top rated tax prep software this year and one that we feel sure will meet all your expectations.
List prices are: Standard Edition, $19.95; Deluxe, 24.95; Platinum, 34.95. Substantial discounts are commonly available.
www.hrblock.com, (800)-HRBLOCK.
Copyright 2003. This article is from the January 2003 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.