TurboTax vs. TaxCut vs. TaxAct: forms - part 4

February 11, 11:05 AMGadgets ExaminerDan Appleman

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All three packages support traditional form entry

TurboTax, TaxCut and TaxAct all have an interview based user interface designed to help you do your taxes without having to dig through the IRS documentation. But these interviews can’t cover every situation. For that, you have to go to the actual tax forms.

In fact, many individuals with moderately complex tax situations are already accustomed to working with the forms and may prefer to use direct form entry rather than the interviews.

Interviews are great if you have all of your information ready and organized, but another strategy for doing taxes is to simply to through every expense (possibly in chronological order) and enter it in the correct place if it’s deductable. For this approach you want to be able to quickly navigate to any part of the tax return, so the forms interface will tend to be much faster than interviews. You’ll also tend to make more use of line item details to record individual transactions. Forms have more information on the screen than interviews, which also makes data entry much faster for experienced users.

TurboTax

TurboTax has a new form navigation user interface for this year, with a list of the forms in your return on the left and the form on the right. This makes navigation between forms very easy. The forms look almost identical to the printed forms. QuickZoom buttons allow you to quickly jump to detail forms. Some forms contain “smart worksheets” that can be hidden. There is a split screen view that allows you to view the underlying form while being interviewed, however this feature does not work in reverse – you cannot easily see or jump to the interview for an associated form.

QuickZoom buttons bring you quickly to related worksheets

TaxCut

TaxCut’s form interface is somewhat more cluttered that TurboTax. The forms have more mini-workbooks within the forms (these can be hidden) instead of separate worksheets. Navigation is somewhat more functional than TurboTax. A recent forms window makes navigation between forms quick, and the ability to jump to any itemized list wherever it is in two clicks of the mouse is a great convenience for those who fill out their returns by entering transactions in random or chronological order. The TaxCut split screen is similar, but more of the interviews show their corresponding form, and it is easy to switch from interview to form input on the same form.

TaxCut forms are more cluttered with many inline worksheets,
but this can make data entry faster once you are accustomed to it.

TaxAct

TaxAct’s form interface is effective both in whole form mode, and as part of a split screen. Unlike TurboTax and TaxCut, TaxAct makes little use of inline worksheets, preferring to use separate supporting forms. Though it lacks the supporting details navigation of TaxCut, form navigation is quick, and in split screen mode a form is almost always visible during the interview.

TaxAct also offers split pane navigation. Small icons indicate links to worksheets

Overall, if you prefer form entry, and tend to move around through the return rather than entering data form by form, you should strongly consider TaxCut. Otherwise, any of the three should serve you well.

TurboTax vs. TaxCut vs. TaxAct reviewed:

• Part 1 - Introduction
• Part 2 - The interviews
• Part 3 - Look and feel
• Part 5 - Pricing
• Part 6 - Conclusion