In fact, all three major packages now have multimedia 'hosts' to explain important points of the current tax laws, point out ways to save, provide tips on filling out the forms, and offer general encouragement and counsel. Features of the pack With all the tax programs, the start-up is straightforward. At all times, help is available, both for the Canadian Tax guides, and online help from the program hosts. Areas where there are problems, such as a forgotten entry, or a form not filled out, are flagged. Each handles navigating from form to form in its own way, but all make it easy.
Immediate feedback is always available.
You can view summaries of your situation and your spouse's, including input values and final tax results. As you fill out forms, automatic calculations are performed and displayed in the appropriate lines. Although you probably will never need to, these automatic calculations can be manually overridden. By review time, SoftKey did not yet have their CD-ROM version ready, so we reviewed their floppy version of CanTax Plus , the software for professional tax preparers. Again, this program had the best calculator of the lot, with a running paper tape on screen, allowing you to review and post entries into the tax form.