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Displays for tax-software boxes are sprouting up everywhere you shop. How's a consumer to choose?

I examined shipping versions of H&R Block's TaxCut Platinum 2002 and Intuit's TurboTax Premier 2002, as well as a beta of 2nd Story Software's TaxAct 2002 Deluxe. Your decision on which package--and which edition--to buy should be based on how complicated your tax situation is and how much you want to spend for software (see the chart).

Intuit is the leader in both software sales and price increases--for instance, its popular TurboTax Premier and Premier Home and Business products each cost $10 more than they did last year. And once again, I must take Intuit--and to a lesser extent, H&R Block--to task for its complicated rebate policies that make it difficult for buyers to determine their true bottom line on a software purchase. Thankfully, 2nd Story doesn't play the rebate game.

And the big two tax software companies don't make free e-filing available for most of their products. Remember, you can always snail-mail your return to save money, though you'll wait longer if you're getting a refund.

That said, all three packages I looked at work well. Intuit's TurboTax Premier 2002 is substantially the same as last year's edition--a good thing. Its calculators and wizards for analyzing taxes on stocks, bonds, and rental property are slightly more comprehensive versions of last year's tools. H&R Block's TaxCut Platinum gains similar improvements, including "Interview Assistants" for rental property and stock and bond investments. Even 2nd Story's TaxAct provides slightly better capital gains reporting and investment advice.

Is the fact that TurboTax Premier is slightly more informative than its competitors worth a price premium? Perhaps for an Intuit Quicken user importing capital gains carryovers or depreciating assets. But a hitch in TurboTax's product activation process, coupled with confusing tech support, turned a prospective 60-second installation into a frustrating hour in my tests. Each of the other two tax apps installed easily in less than a minute.

And you can't use the Intuit software until you activate it by sending the software's product key to the company via the Internet. Intuit then sends back a code that allows you full use of your software on that PC only (the company says the process should take just seconds). Though you may use the activated software on any PC, you may print and file only from the original PC.

TaxCut Platinum gives active investors and data importers functionality nearly identical to TurboTax Premier's--plus one free tax inquiry to an H&R Block professional, a $20 value.

However, the cheapest solution for those with simple returns is 2nd Story's TaxAct Deluxe Bundle: only $28.

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