Tax Time Three programs that help you prepare for the tax man

Ouch. it's tax time again--time to roll up your sleeves,rummage through your receipts and update your computer files. Ofcourse, you could leave the dirty work to an accountant, but withtoday's plethora of tax software programs, you may not needto.

The tax software game has been the same for several years. Thereare the dominant programs--namely, Intuit's TurboTax and BlockFinancial's Kiplinger TaxCut--and a few other less popularprograms, such as Personal Tax Edge from Parsons Technology (whichis also owned by Intuit), all reviewed here.

Because IRS forms and schedules aren't completed until theend of the year, final versions of these programs were notavailable at press time. I reviewed beta versions of TurboTax andPersonal Tax Edge and, for TaxCut, a shipping product called"The Planning Edition."