NT (sort of) - Interesting interlude in '05-land

[Catherine]

I just did a quick re-do of a 2005 return for a client's child at the client's request. Kid had to pay tax on a mutual fund sale of funds in an UTMA account.

Here's the interesting bit: I went to ATX 2005, and had the devil's own time trying to get the program to correctly calculate the tax due. I had to go into worksheets and change here and adjust there -- it was a royal pain. AND, in the end I couldn't get it to calculate _any_ tax due, when I knew there had to be -- the kid had a couple of thousand in capital gains above her earned income. Wasn't much tax, only about $130, but it wasn't NONE.

So, out of curiosity, I opened up my trial of Drake from 2005. Entered all the information FAST, and it calculated all the deduction amounts and tax amounts automatically. I didn't have to go in and adjust anything anywhere (once I found the checkbox to have the taxpayer claimed as someone else's dependent). In a program I don't really know, I did this in 1/3 the time I argued with ATX, and got a solid answer -- which I never did with ATX.

Now, that doesn't change the fact that Drake is a royal PITA whenever you DO need to override something. But if CCH ever becomes truly, deeply offensive, I think I know where I'll go...

FWIW,

Catherine

[JohnH]

I've tried Drake and I agree it's a very good package.

I prefer the ATX for its forms entry, intuitive functioning, and price right now. But if ATX ever make changes in any of those areas that I can't live with, I'll definitely switch to Drake. As a matter of fact, I'll probably use Drake on some of my extension returns this year just to stay familiar with its layout. Doing that falls under the general concept of "keeping your powder dry".