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

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

The bottom line is that all of these programs handle the major tasks inherent in the corporate and partnership returns, easily computing such requirements as dividend-received deductions and K-1 allocations.

CPAid has more precautions built in but may take longer than learn. TaxShop is simple and quick but may not offer the help or depth you need. TurbiTax is straightforward in operatin with fine detail.

Unfortunately, few state corporate and partnership programs are available: CPAid advertises New York programs, and TaxShop tells us they have only a California corporate program this year.

These offerings - CPAid, TurboTax, and TaxShop - are just three of the many fine programs available. More than 30 publishers sell programs than run in IBM and compatible PCs to do the federal Forms 1120 and 1065. Several others, such as Lacerte, Pencil Pushers, and Prentice Hall, claim more than a thousand users for their corporate or partnership programs. For Macintosh mavens, there is SoftView Inc.'s TaxView Pro 1120, 1120S, and 1065.

Unfortunately, few of these software publishers have yet developed state modules. Like CPAid, TurboTax, and TaxShop, those that do usually offer only programs for California, New York, or the state where they are located. Perhaps it's because a fair number of states requires additional information such as sales, payroll, and property values within the state, and have more varied ways of measuring taxable income. Before you plunk down your money for the federal program, see if your choice of publisher puts out a companion program for your state's corporate or partnership tax returns.

Several tax-program publishers have fixed-asset programs that interface to transfer depreciation figures to their own tax programs. Unlike some mainframe tax-return programs, often customized for major corporations, the PC tax-return programs generally are not able to read the results of other computerized business accounting programs directly. That software milestone is likely to take several more years of intense developmental work.

If you are professional accountant whose clients include individuals corporations, and partnerships, one way you can accelerate your proficieny is to choose all your computer tax-return software from the same publisher. The screen design, key functions, entry conventions, and other features tend to be identical or analogous from one program to the next. So after you learn the first program, you have a big head start on the rest.

Even better, if you are happy with the choice you make the first year, get the next year's update from the same publisher. Many programs have a transfer feature through which the updated programs can easily copy basic data and carry over amounts to the next year's client file.

If you are knowledgeable enough to tackle a business tax return at all and have some familiarity with a few computer applications, you should be able to use one of these programs quite successfully. Certainly, the computer tax programs help enormously with the arithmetic and typing.