It's everyone's favourite time of year again, tax season. While some of you are groaning at the thought of having to hand over more of your hard-earned money to the government, others are smiling over the prospect of a healthy return. Either way, Intuit's Quick Tax Platinum is available to ease the burden.
The beauty of this software is that it's designed so that anyone can use it. You simply pop it into your computer and follow the instructions. At each stage you are prompted for what information you will need to complete that particular section of the tax form. Still confused? Perhaps the additional video guides can help you.
After you've made it through all of the steps Quick Tax will walk you through a review where you can pick up on things you may have missed or learn how to maximize your RRSP and charity contributions. From there, if you feel that everything is in order you can choose to send your forms electronically or save them until you're ready. The whole process can be over in an hour, and if you like you can have your refund within 24 hours, for a fee.
Unfortunately not everything about the Quick Tax program is as wonderful as the basic tax return. As you click through the set-up process you will be asked to install Internet Explorer and Adobe Acrobat. These programs appear to be included in the general set-up and will be installed once you accept all of the licensing terms. However, when you try and use the online help sections you may find that the program has over-written your current settings shutting you out of the Internet altogether.
Another irritation with Quick Tax is that Intuit once again takes the opportunity to market it's other new products and services. This is a trend that Quickbooks and Quicken users may have noticed in the past year. What is particularly interesting with this version of Quick Tax is that users are given the option to have their use of the program tracked by Intuit. While this option is presented as an opportunity for Intuit to learn how to serve you better, it can also be used to find out how to better market more of these extraneous products and services.
