9212mhm (02/17/83)
I am looking for comments anyone has on various tax preparation packages for the Apple. I have an Apple //e with an 80 column screen and am about to buy a printer (probably Epson MX80 or Okidata Microline 82). I know of the existence of the following packages. Any comments? Advise? Tax Preparer Howardsoftft $150 the oldest one I know of, looks OK to me so far Tax Break Proforma Sortware $130 formerly put out by Datamost under the name "Tax Beater" Ads seem a bit full of hype to me, but may be good Tax Templates Omega Microware $90 Visicalc templates for tax preparation Omega is the company that puts out Locksmith (no flames from software authors, please) Tax Advantage Continental Software $60 Continental puts out The Home Accountant, from what I hear the best inexpensive home accounting system Price seems pretty low, though, and they say they handle "most common tax forms." I'm not going to do anything weirder than income average and also declare my wife a self employed professional (musician), but am a bit concerned about it handling only the *very* common forms. Any comments would be appreciated. I would like to get *something* within a week or so, or can the idea and do it by hand (then why did I just buy that machine???). Thanks, Mark H. Mortensen Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ houxb!9212mhm
Mendelson.es@parc-maxc.arpa (02/22/83)
This message is in response to Mark H. Mortensen's request for information on tax packages for the Apple IIE. Sorry for the wide distribution, but after typing up a storm I couldn't find out how to get it through to him alone. Mark, I have used the Howardsoft Tax Preparer, both Federal and California State versions, for the past two years on an extremely complex tax return. It is comprehensive, and works well, but it has a long ways to go in its human interface. On the whole its merits far outweigh its demerits, so let me talk about them first. It sequences you through each individual form very nicely, but you have to control how you sequence from form to form very carefully (see below). As you work through a form it permits you to build supporting schedules beautifully. For example, if you reach the Charitable Contributions line on schedule A it permits you to exit Schedule A, build a complete Charitable Contributions schedule with amounts, check number, descriptive detail of charity, and so on. When you have built the schedule, you exit it, and find that you have returned to Schedule A at the Charitable Contributions line where it picks up the total of all the contributions that you have just generated. Later it will print both Schedule A and all of the supporting schedules. You can go back and edit the schedules, and the effects of any additional or altered amounts will be picked up in the major schedule. In the end you get a beautiful tax package printout out of it. You are required to submit your 1040 on a standard federal form, but all other schedules may be printed with computer generated text provided it conforms to certain rules. The Tax Preparer will print on a 1040 form, and adheres to the rules for all other forms. I have submitted complete returns containing on the order of 20 pages using this technique. Now for the bad news. It's human interface is not the greatest. It forces you to go through the schedules in a very rigid sequence in order to insure that everything stays tied together. For example, if you found an additional charitable deduction you would have to go through Schedule A to the charitable deduction line, exit to the itemized schedule, add the new deduction to it, return to Schedule A where your addition would be picked up, complete Schedule A, and then re-do the 1040 in order to pick up the new itemized deduction total. That is all very reasonable, but it is time consuming, and you have to be careful. There are several schedules that essentially operate interactively with respect to the 1040, and you also have to be very careful to process them in the right sequence if you want to get correct results. That is, you have to get to some point in the 1040 in order to get a value that feeds forward into another schedule. Then you have to scroll through to complete the 1040 (with incomplete results), exit the 1040, go to the other schedule, complete it using the value obtained from the 1040, then return to scroll through the 1040 to the point where you get feedback from the other schedule. If all of that sounds a little confusing, -- it is. You have to understand something about how your taxes really work if you have some complex tax matters to deal with. But, it all works. For example, if you have to use form 6251, the alternative minimum tax, you find that you need to compute your tax on 1040, go to 6251 where you pick up the tax from 1040 as part of the 6251 calculations, then return to 1040 where you get feedback from the results of 6251. This kind of interaction occurs in a number of places in a complex tax return, and you have to understand the proper sequence or you won't get correct results. If you have a relatively straightforward return you won't run into these sequencing problems. If you have a complex return you probably understand what you are dealing with, and won't have any trouble. If all of this sounds negative I did not intend it to be so. I guess the best testimonial is that I have ordered both the Federal and State versions for 1983, my third year of use. If you have any questions you can call me at my office (213) 536-9520 (8:15 AM to 5:00 PM PST), or at my home (213) 981-2055 (6:30 PM to 10:30 PM PST). Or, you can fire away over the network. Jerry Mendelson