Tina Orem

As a site for preparing your tax return, CCH's CompleteTax is a lot like TaxBrain, but at half the price. CompleteTax Premium is best suited for people who have a solid working knowledge of taxes and are confident preparing their own returns. Novices and worriers may find themselves taking longer than they would with other sites because they'll likely have to do more research to understand many of the questions they're answering--CompleteTax doesn't place very much instruction or guidance on the questionnaires themselves.

This isn't to say that CompleteTax isn't worthwhile--it just has its niche. For instance, though the site design has gotten sleeker and more sophisticated-looking since last year, it still has a lot of white space and a sterile feel. Clearly, when it comes to taxes, function is more important than form--but some users may balk at the no-frills look and the lack of hand-holding guidance.

If you live what the IRS considers an uncomplicated life and you just want to crank out your return rather than try to understand why the numbers are what they are, then the TaxBrain tax-preparation site will probably get the job done.

TaxBrain bunches up several questions on a single screen, which can be a time-saver.TaxBrain's questionnaires (with a bigger font this year) allow you to answer several questions on one screen, saving time and making it easier to navigate or start and stop than on some of the other tax-prep sites.

At $10 for a federal return under the Deluxe version and about a mere $17 if you upgrade to TaxAct Ultimate (federal and state), 2nd Story Software's TaxAct is a real steal. At that price, customers can usually expect little more than basic entry forms, but with its good navigability and ample instructions, TaxAct offers huge bang for the buck.

As I worked my way through my test return, tabs across the top made the crucial act of backtracking easy, and the refund ticker kept me updated on how much Uncle Sam was going to either cough up or wring out of me. You can import W-2 forms electronically if your employer is hooked up with W-2 eXpress, an Equifax-owned company that provides W-2 forms for some businesses. TaxAct can also import investment-transaction information from the GainsKeeper financial services site.

It was a squeaker this year, but Intuit's TurboTax tax-preparation site gets the nod again. Though TaxAct and TaxCut are breathing down its neck, TurboTax Premier did the best job of combining the math with the capabilities to think critically, think ahead, and think strategically.

TurboTax not only noticed that my employer had withheld too much for Medicare, but it told me exactly what I should do about it.Take, for example, the fake Medicare and Social Security taxes that I had entered in my test tax-return data: TurboTax realized that the employer had been withholding too much, and then went a step further--it told me what I should actually do about the situation (contact my employer, request a revised W-2, and seek a refund). Other sites either missed the overwithholding altogether or caught it but simply noted that the percentage seemed high.

At about $70 for a state and federal return, H&R Block's TaxCut Premium continues to offer attractive pricing relative to TurboTax, and its access to Block's army of flesh-and-blood tax preparers as well as the ability to import TurboTax data (but only from desktop versions) present a tantalizing proposition for some TurboTax customers looking to save a few bucks.

TaxCut's user-friendly interface includes a questionnaire where you specify any major life events with tax implications.TaxCut's user-friendly interface is virtually the same as last year's, and it is more sophisticated (but seemed a little slower) than TaxBrain's or TaxAct's. The "% complete" bar at the bottom helps users stay focused, and navigating to other parts of a return is pretty easy and intuitive. TaxCut still does not import W-2 or 1099 forms, however, and the W-2 entry form doesn't visually resemble an actual W-2 form, which makes data entry a little more time-consuming. Figuring out the value of items donated to charity also proved tricky unless you opted to pay another $20 to download DeductionPro (TaxCut's alternative to TurboTax's It's Deductible).