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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 3 seconds

Looking for Tax Software Savings

 Jeff Fritz, Thomson ReutersHistorically, ninety-five percent of all tax software users renew the product that they used in the previous tax season. But there are always plenty of people looking for something less expensive and while there aren't hordes of new low-cost packages, there is one and it comes from a very important company while another player got new money behind it.

Thomson took the TaxSimple application that it acquired and reworked it into an online product called Agile that will be released for the first time this fall. Jeff Fritz, in the office of the president for Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting business, said there will be a December release to give users a chance to fill out organizers. The product will hit the market with the federal and all state 1040 and efiling elements along with all states that have 1120/1120S and 1065 returns and all states that support efiling for those forms.

"The sweet spot is the tax-only type people," says Fritz.

Agile is priced at $100 per month for the single preparer for unlimited access to federal and state 1040 returns. The subscription is $50 per month for all business tax returns. The cost for each additional preparer is $50 month and all preparers get access to the same forms as purchased for the initial preparer.

Meanwhile, TaxAct enters its second tax season under its new ownership, Blucora, a company that was known as InfoSpace until a corporate name change after tax season. Blucora acquired TaxAct's parent, Second Story Software after a court blocked the company's acquisition by H&R Block. Under the new ownership, TaxAct grew at double digits.

Not many feature changes are planned for TaxAct and while the company will probably have pricing changes, it is not ready to announce them, says spokesperson Jessi Dolmage. She says changes to bundling are possible, but have not been determined. The federal edition is $119 each for the 1040, 1120, 1120S and 1065. Individual states are $24.95 each, again for each federal form, with all states available for $79.95.

The Enterprise Edition, priced at $199 for each federal form, gives the firm the ability to have multiple users, backup returns online, attach scanned document to client returns in the TaxAct Document Manager, track client appointments and other dates in Appointment Manager and receive unlimited support.

Among other lower-cost packages is TaxSlayer Pro, whose company has become more visible in the last two years with national advertising for its consumer product. Priced at $995, TaxSlayer Pro Classic includes the unlimited 1040 program with all states, corporate tax software, the TaxBook Tax Reference Library, a depreciation module, bank products and unlimited e-filing. For $1,295, users can buy TaxSlayer Pro Premium. That product offers Internet-based storage and the Paper Cut module. Paper Cut enables preparers to export, save and print returns as PDF documents. They can also utilize the module to scan and save client documents.

Intuit's lowest cost professional product, ProSeries Basic offers 50 1040 returns and two states, currently priced at $449, and unlimited 1040 returns and four states for $799. At $999, the Unlimited Plus Business version provides unlimited 1040 returns for four states 4 states and up to 15 federal and state business returns.

The low-cost entry in the CCH line is ATX with its various flavors of bundling. ATX 1040 offers unlimited federal returns and unlimited returns for up to three states for $529. The first 100 efiled returns are free and then the price is $5 each for combined federal, state and extension returns. For $799, the 1040 Office includes unlimited federal and all state 1040 form preparation and efiing. The system is also integrated with CCH's IntelliConnect research platform.

Max, priced at $1,249, adds all state and federal business forms, along with the W-2/1099 and 940/941/941 forms with free efiling and more than 1,700 state and local payroll forms.


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