wgrcu@cunyvm.bitnet.UUCP (01/26/87)
If anyone out there is looking for a good (and relatively inexpensive) tax program, I'd like to put in a good word for a program called PC/Taxcut from Best Programs of Arlington, Virginia. I used it last year for doing my taxes, and have purchased this year's version as well. It works differently than many of the other programs on the market in that you don't just fill in your tax form on the computer and let the program do the calculations for you. Instead, it has categories that you fill in, eg, taxpayer information, income, deductions, etc., and it takes the numbers for you and puts them in the appropriate places on the tax forms and prints them for you. It prints IRS-acceptable copies of everything but the 1040 itself on regular paper; it requires preprinted 1040's, or you'll have to fill in the numbers by hand. That's the only negative point with this program - it won't print a 1040 with the lines so you can easily see what's what when you are copying it to a real 1040 - it assumes you'll have the real forms to feed into the printer. Other than that, the program is quite easy to use, and they guarantee that they will pay any penalty if the IRS comes up with something that the program did incorrectly on your return (assuming you gave it correct information, of course). The program is available for about $60 from 47th Street Photo. This is cheaper than the manufacturer sells it for if you buy it from them directly, so beware their direct mail advertising. (It's also cheaper than the 'special' upgrade price for last year's customers.) The program also comes with a 15 day money back guarantee, which is quite nice of them. Bill Rubin City University of New York 212/903-3676 WGRCU@CUNYVM.BITNET