Let’s face it: tax software is a commodity and a program from one vendor can easily be substituted with another if you are willing to put up with a little bit of a learning curve. The realities of the marketplace seem to have escaped the folks at Intuit, the makers of the biggest-selling tax preparation software, QuickTax. Despite my distaste for learning to use yet another tax-preparation software, I am shopping around because:
- Despite the big print that says “Prepare up to 20 returns” QuickTax Standard, the 2007 version allows you to prepare just 2 returns, down from 6 last year. You’ll have to pay extra to prepare more than 2 returns.
- It’s not clear if QuickTax Standard allows entering investment, rental property or self-employment income. It’s ridiculous that we have to pony up $20 more for QuickTax Platinum to declare a little bit of dividend income.
The good news is that there are plenty of options: CRA’s website lists eight competitors for the 2006 tax year. Maybe this is the year I’ll try out UFile instead. Helpfully, UFile’s website states that the program allows data to be imported from QuickTax and the folks at Financial Web Ring have discovered that UFile has increased the number of returns for 2007.
