Product Reviews

If you hate forms, the dread tax return could bring on palpitations. But don't reach for the sedatives - why not pick up TaxCalc 1998/99?

TaxCalc aims to make filling out your tax return easy, offering step-by-step guidance through each question. If a section doesn't apply to you, you can just skip it. The interface is similar to Outlook Express, so if you know what you're doing, you can jump directly to any section

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you need, rather than leafing through pages to find it.

One thing you need to know is whether individual sections such as savings and investments or pensions are relevant to your situation. If you're not sure, TaxCalc helps with plenty of descriptive text, before moving to the screen of questions. The right mouse button also offers context-sensitive help, and TaxCalc goes further, offering access to guidance and tips direct from the Inland Revenue's help sheets.

When you've finished filling in the on-screen form, you can see what the return itself looks like, and check your tax liability. Finally, you can print the whole document, and send it off to the Revenue. And next year you can open this year's return with the current version of TaxCalc and most of the fields will be filled in for you!

TaxCalc is easy to use and certainly beats doing the job by hand. It has a polished look, and even though there's room for a little more tax advice, it's still well worth the asking price.