Preparing And Filing Your Taxes On The Web - online tax filing services

Nation's Business, Feb, 1999 by Tim McCollum

Filling out a return is fairly simple. Users log in to the site and answer a series of questions about their income.

Help "wizards" guide users through each relevant form until they have completed their federal and state forms. Another help wizard answers tax questions.

Once the user's tax data is completed, SecureTax takes about two minutes to calculate the tax refund or amount due. Then it audits the user's tax return to point out potential problems that might lead to an IRS audit.

One of the best features of SecureTax is that users can try it free. There is no charge to fill out federal and state returns. Users pay only to print or electronically file their returns.

The AnyTime tax-return organizer allows individuals to input tax data throughout the year rather than just at tax season. The information is stored on Universal Tax Systems' Web site until the user needs to calculate a final return.

SecureTax.com includes more than 4,000 federal and state tax forms. In addition to federal returns, it can prepare forms for all 45 states that levy income taxes and the 36 states that allow electronic filing.

Users pay $14.95 for one federal 1040 return and one state return, and $9.95 for federal and state 1O4OEZ returns.

WebTurboTax (Intuit Inc., www.webturbotax.com). Intuit' WebTurboTax looks and feels much like the company's flagship TurboTax and MacInTax tax software, making it a familiar choice for previous users of those market-leading products.

WebTurboTax uses the same series of questions as TurboTax does to fill in financial information. Users respond only to the questions that are relevant to their returns, and in turn WebTurboTax generates only the forms that are necessary for the returns.

Once users have entered their data, WebTurboTax calculates the refund or payment and generates the final return. Users can print the return or file it electronically. WebTurboTax covers federal and 45 state income-tax returns. It supports more than 100 IRS tax forms, schedules, and worksheets.

The cost to prepare a federal form runs from $9.95 to $19.95, depending on the complexity of the return. State returns cost $9.95 to $19.95 each.