It’s time to face the annual decision of how to get the taxes done. Paper forms? Buy preparation software from CompUSA? Hire somebody? Thanks to a timely discussion on Slashdot, I discovered a nice little web-based service called TaxACT that seems to be comparable to Turbo Tax and the like, but doesn’t require any software installation. Its cost is also very reasonable, with a tiered pricing model. I spent about $18 total for the deluxe version of the service plus electronic filing of my state return. The deluxe version includes federal electronic filing, an accuracy guarantee, and several other features. If you don’t care about E-File and all that, they also have a free service. If you choose to use the same service next year, it will remember your data, and they seem to have a pretty solid privacy and confidentiality guarantee. It gave me PDF copies of all relevant paperwork to print for my records. My taxes this year were fairly simple, but I was pretty happy with the overall experience. Just thought y’all might want to check it out before you plunk down the $$ and deal with the hassle of installing Turbo Tax.
