dbarnes@garth.UUCP (Dave Barnes) (01/11/90)
A few days ago, I posted a request for input on income tax packages
for the PC. I received a number of helpful responses, and I thought
I'd post them for others who may be considering such a purchase...
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Response #1
I bought PTAX at Babbages. $14.99. Does everything I need (business
expenses, Child Care). Like every other package I have seen, it
prints all forms but the 1040. One nice feature, it supports several
different printers and lets you customize if you printer does not fit
the supplied ones.
For what is deductable, I don't believe programs are economical.
I just read the Fed instructions. I have not found that difficult,
especially considering both my wife and I have considerable business
expenses and she has lots of travel.
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Response #2
I recommend "Turbo Tax" from Chip Soft. I used it last year and it
was one of the finest PC programs I have used. It includes all forms
and prints a dot matrix (or laser) 1040 form that is acceptable to
the IRS. The manual is excellent. A state program is also available
although I did not buy it. A discount copy is probably available from
any discount software dealer. After your initial purchase, yearly
updates are 50% discounted from the manufacturer.
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Response #3
I have TaxCut, forgot just who wrote it at the moment, and must say
that after several hours of working with it, managed to get my return
in already. I didn't do anything complicated on it, as I just have
income tax from work and some interest from a trust fund, but it did
that fine. There are two areas where it is really neat: 1) There is
a very large table of items that can be called up by keypress. Select
the item, e.g. diesel car, and it takes you to line 39a of form HK
(this is just an example) and tells you that you can deduct $109 for
your new diesel car. 2) A very neato "ask the expert" option where
it can select a topic or a line (e.g. filing status) and by a series
of yes/no/fill-in-the-blank questions it will provide some good
advice.
Several other useful things are that you can fake data (may or may
not be useful to you :-) and the wrong data shows up in red, nice
touch guys), and it seems to be a very complete program.
The only things wrong with it are that it jumps back and forth between
the forms really quickly, will not to my knowledge produce the correct
data on the correct forms (which isn't a problem for me because my
printer does not hold up to the official IRS standards of "at least
300 dpi laser printer"), and it's kinda tricky to get started at
first.
All in all, a capable program with 1-800 support (I never needed it)
and quite user friendly.
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Response #4
For the last two years I have used the software prepared by Bammel
Software, POB 382194, Ducanville, TX 75138-2194, tel (214) 296-8518.
They offer a complete package for $24.00 which is simple to use, and
had no problems for the last two years. IRS accepted the reports
without question - The 1040 itself is filled in by the user in ink
using the data from the program since IRS is very particular about
the use of that form. Bammel does offer 1040 laser printer forms for
those rich enough to have such printers. I have no connection with
Bammel other than that of a satisfied user who has ordered their
package again this year.
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Response #5
In response to your request for info on PC tax software, there are
of course many commercial packages. Turbo Tax seems to get very
good reviews. The package I like is AMTAX89, which is written by
AM Software, Kansas City, MO. This package is intuitive enough that
the user's manual is almost unnecessary. AMTAX is also widely
available in shareware form on many PC BBS's. The main difference
between the shareware form and the standard commercial form is that
the shareware form cannot print out an IRS-approved 1040, although
all the schedules are IRS-approved. If you register the program
(about $45, I think), AMTAX can print out not only the schedules,
but also the main 1040. It works on laser printers as well as IBM
and Epson-compatible dot matrix printers. The program also supports
several state forms. I have used the program for two years now and
like it a lot.
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Again, my thanks to those who provided this helpful input. -- DB
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David Barnes
UUCP: {pyramid,sri-unix,ingr}!apd!dbarnes 415/852-2365
USPS: Intergraph APD, 2400 Geng Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303
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