Business owners may not get a break from taxes this year, but they are getting their own edition of Intuit's MacInTax. MacInTax for Business joins personal-tax programs MacInTax and Block Financial's Kiplinger TaxCut as this year's IRS-busters. All three have Head Start versions available in mid-November, with final versions to follow in mid-January.
The CD-ROM-based MacInTax for Business ($79) steps business owners through the process of filling out all federal income-tax forms and includes online, context-sensitive links to IRS publications such as Tax Guide for Small Business and personal-finance books such as Nolo Press' Tax Savvy for Small Business. The sole-proprietorship version is a more business-tax-oriented version of MacInTax; a version for corporations, S-corporations, and partnerships has 25 modules for tax forms for states and cities that have more-complex tax laws ($50 per module).
For taxpayers who don't need Schedule C, the personal edition of MacInTax will be available in a Deluxe CD-ROM version as well as on floppy disk. The CD-ROM version will include links to pertinent publications, such as The Money Income Tax Handbook and How to Pay Zero Taxes, as well as video advice from tax experts. State modules are now available for every state that has an income tax. Street prices are $40 for MacInTax and $50 for MacInTax Deluxe. State modules are $25 each, directly from Intuit.
All the MacInTax products let you import information from last year's MacInTax and Quicken but not from QuickBooks. In response to complaints about product problems and service last year, Intuit says it is involving its tax analysts in more steps of the production and plans to double staffing on its customer-service lines. Intuit, 800-964-1040 or 619-453-4446.
Block Financial's tax-preparation software package has a new name, Kiplinger TaxCut, but little else about it has changed. Like MacInTax, it steps you through the process of filling out your 1040 and related federal income-tax forms. State modules are available only for California and New York. Kiplinger TaxCut, $35; state modules, $25 each (estimated street). Block Financial. 800-235-4060.
