I've never found that the tax prep programs found any deductions I didn't know about, or that they have any "magic" formulas for reducing my taxes. I have used them for several years simply for the convenience of being able to print the proper forms with the information all in the right places.

I usually make up my own summary sheet in advance, with all of the informatin I'll need, and usually have all "the answers" before I even start up the program. We do, however, use quite a number of different forms, that can be a real trial to collect in advance, and the gov't never sends all we need.

I am aware that you can download .pdf files of most of the forms, but those have to be filled in "by hand," which does introduce an additional opportunity for simple, but sometimes fairly important errors; an for some arcane reason there are a couple that they won't accept unless they're filed on "original" IRS blanks - and even the prep software can't print those for you. Form 1096 is one example. They allow you to use "commercially prepared" forms, provided that they conform exactly to a 200 page specification - including a dozen pages on what kind of ink you can use - but they prohibit any indication on a "commercially prepared" form to tell you that it conforms to the spec. Bureaucracy at work.

Unfortunately, the people who market the major prep software have apparently seen the opportunity to "mine" everyone's tax returns for information they can use for their own marketing enterprises - with the apparent "blessing" of their practices by the IRS. Intuit (TurboTax) was defending approximately a dozen "invasion of privacy" lawsuits at about this time last year - I haven't run a new search, because I don't intend to have anything more to do with them. I've also seen reports recently that the Fed is conducting an inquiry into their use of "high pressure" (coercion) tactics to try to get people to "e-file" and to use their "instant refund" setups. Both of these are advertised as "free," and can be nearly so for very simple returns, (i.e. for those who don't need their programs at all) but generally end up costing most of the people who do use them fairly large fees that are seldom openly disclosed.

The bottom line is that I see no justification for Intuit to covertly put software on my - or your - machine to "keep track" of what I do with it, particularly if it breaks your machine as they did mine last year. Including components that are not instantly and cleanly uninstallable in a "one-shot" program like this is just plain slime-ball stupid (unless it does have a purpose for them, in which case it's plainly dishonest).

Last year, I communicated my concerns to 3 local TV stations, 4 separate editors at my local newspaper, 3 editors at ZiffDavis Publications, my state Attorney General, my County District Attorney, and my local Better Business Bureau. My comments were acknowledged by one reporter from a TV station, but otherwise - noone cared. I'm just greatly encouraged that someone at the Wall Street Journal has apparently noticed that things ain't all as they should be.

My personal recommendation to anyone I consider a friend has to be - don't patronize any Intuit product, at least until they clean up their act. There's not much else I can - or am inclined to - do about it now.

John