Business returns on PCs - tax programs for personal computers - evaluation

Nation's Business, April, 1990 by Laura Lou Meadows

I must confess I miss the complete IRS line-by-line instructions and the fail-safe diagnostic feature listing omissions that are two of the most valuable features in the personal TurboTax program.

Still I find the TurnoTax manuals for the 1120S-1120 and the 1065 programs notable for being that rare thing: computer manuals so complete, clearly written, and well-organized that I'm seldom left stranded or puzzled.

TurboTax, ProSeries 1120-1120S corporate program, $395, laser forms, $200; California corporate program, $295, laser forms, $100. California partnership program, $250, laser forms, $100. Both the partnership and corporate programs are available on 360K 5 1/4" or 720K 3 1/2" disk. Requires DOS 2.0-3.2 and 512K or DOS 3.3 and 63 IBM PC or compatible, and a hard drive. ChipSoft Inc., 5045 Shoredam Place, San Diego, Calif. 92122; (619) 453-8722. For replicas of all tax forms with laser driver, Center Piece Accounting & Tax Font Cartridge, $239, or Hewlett Packard Forms, Etc. Font Cartridge, $195.

Tax Shop

The striking thing about the TaxShop 1120-1120S and 1065 programs is that they raise color coding to a high art. Data entry is a pleasure with the superb screen conventions that lead you along and convey a great deal for information without a feeling of overwhelming clutter.

The programs recalculate everything instantaneously and then save everything each time you move from field to field or screen to screen. This eliminates the possibility of losing data or becoming confused if you forget to save or neglect to press a recalculation key.

This feature is a little Draconian if you want to test different scenarios or experiment and then return to the original.

You might deal with this by copying successive variations of the file. They can the be compared, and you can choose the one that works best. Although cumbersome, it's worthwhile trade-off for the security.

The TaxShop client letter is clever enough to distinguish between a return with a balance due and one with a refund and pick out the proper paragraph for each return.

In terms of advice, TaxShop iffers clear, useful topic screens about program operations but has relatively little on the substance of the tax rules. In the course of keeping things simple, TaxShop includes the depreciation form but leaves you to figure out each asset's depreciation and enter the right number.

If your business has already put its depreciable properties into a fixed asset or spreadsheet program to calculate the year's deduction, there may be no need for you to have a tax-return program duplicate the process.

On the other hand, the TaxShop publisher is sufficiently confident to offer a 15-day money-back guarantee if you are dissatisfied with the program.

TaxShop 1120-1120S corporate program, $199, laser forms, $119; California or New York state corporate program, $119 each, laser forms, $59; Tax Shop 1065 partnership program, $179, laser forms, $59. Both corporate and partnership programs are available on 360K 5 1/4" or 720K 3 1/2" disks. Requires 512K IBM PC or compatible, DOS 2.1 or higher, 512K, and a hard drive. TenKey Publishing Inc., 7650 Municipal Drive, Orlando, Fla. 32819-9823; 1-800-448-1415. For replicas of all tax forms with laser driver, Center Piece Accounting & Tax Font Cartridge, $239.