Parsons
Technology
Installation is smooth and allows the user to define default directories. UNINSTALL routine is included for clean after tax season. There is a wizard-like feature called “guide” which is recommended by the booklet.
PTE starts you out with an interview process to input standard data such as names, SSAN, income, etc. The question process was, for me, thorough enough that few, if any areas are not covered. Areas include, wages, interest/dividend income, taxes paid, business and farm income, investment sales, retirement distributions, IRA contributions and unemployment payments.
One good feature. I had several different W-2 forms this year. PTE allowed me to enter each W-2 separately, rather than having to add up the total manually and then enter a single number. This multiple entry capability was available throughout all data entry for items such as charitable contributions, interest/dividends and business income. Additionally, one could attach a note to an entry via a “Bookkeeper”, allowing you to make notes in case explanations are required later.
The interview process was well integrated. If you indicate that you want to add your child’s income to your own return, the program hot-links to the appropriate form and prompts for the necessary information. When looking at a final form, (for instance the 1040) a numerical entry that was forwarded from a secondary form (i.e. Form 2166) can not be changed easily, but you can jump back to the original form to view the basic data entry.
Unfortunately, the help files were not that helpful. Instead of being able to search for a help topic the normal way (type in your subject), you are presented with the Help files separated into 4 categories: IRS Instruction Booklet, J.K. Lasser Tax Tips, FAQs and How to Use PTE. Therefore, I had to have an idea of which area held my subject question. If I knew that, I probably would not have been asking the question.
Other features include a tax review that will compare your current tax situation with the previous year’s review (if the data is entered) and allows you to “what if?” that data by changing your possible deductions to estimate the tax impact. Other comparisons available include Married Joint vs Separate returns, and comparing your return to U.S. averages (IRS flag?). The program has a menu link to the Windows calculator and comes with a built-in interest/depreciation calculator.
Filing return options include printed paper, 1040PC (a compressed printed format allowed by the IRS) and electronic filing. However, the electronic filing is done by submitting your electronic file to Parsons, who then in turn submits your return to the IRS for a $15 fee. Print options include text based for overprinting on pre-printed IRS forms, and laser/dot-matrix printing, which prints the approved IRS form and data at the same time. The booklet infers that printing may take 5 - 15 minutes. On my dot-matrix printer, I believe it. On a laser with memory, the spooling of the forms would probably not take so long.
I thought PTE served me well, ran reasonably fast on my ancient
386/sx16 and was a good price. (List of $29 retail, $20 for the upgrade
to the final version). A further, short review of several tax packages,
including PTE is in PC Computing magazine, Feb 96, p. 292.