PAINLESS TAX PREPARATION? NOT QUITE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 12, 1992                   TAG: 9202110258
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LARRY BLASKO ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
PAINLESS TAX PREPARATION? NOT QUITE
Fred T. Goldberg, Jr., wants you!
Well, part of you, at least.
Goldberg is commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Between now and April 15, he and his IRS colleagues arise from the gloom of the federal bureaucracy and walk among the living in search of blood.
They're followed closely by legions of computerized tax preparation programs that promise to make the process painless, almost fun.
Don't believe them.
Even the best of the software requires lots of work from the computer between your ears.
Still, there are advantages:
The programs won't make math errors.
Data need only be entered once to appear in the correct place on multiple forms - your Social Security number, for example, or your gross income.
Hooked to a printer, the programs will generate IRS-accepted forms ready for signature.
The programs will alert you to tax-saving strategies you might otherwise overlook and will flag things that might generate an IRS audit.
Good programs allow transfer of data from common spreadsheet and budgeting programs and into state tax returns.
But remember:
GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) is the unbreakable law of computing. If you don't have the data and have it organized, the programs can't help.
There are two programs that lead the field: TurboTax by ChipSoft of San Diego, Calif., and Andrew Tobias' TaxCut 1040 by MECA Software of Fairfield, Conn.
The pricing: For TurboTax, the DOS version is $79.95, the Windows version $99.95. TurboTax DOS state returns cost $39.95 each, Windows version $69.95. TaxCut 1040 costs $59.95 for either DOS or Windows versions, and state forms are $39.95 each.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB