Intuit
building online tax solutions for Canadians
by Alan Zisman (c) 2005 First published in
Business in Vancouver
March 22-28, 2005; issue 804; High Tech Office
column
For Intuit Canada, makers of Canadian QuickTax and CanTax tax software,
Canadians set a milestone last year. According to Intuit's Jason Smith,
half of all Canadians prepare their own tax returns and for the first
time, more of those returns were prepared using tax software than paper
and pencil.
Other software sellers may be in a quandary over how to convince users
to upgrade to their latest and greatest versions, but vendors of tax
software have it easy: customers have to purchase a new copy each year
to cope with changing tax regulations and rates. According to Smith,
this year's edition of its 13-year-old best-seller QuickTax has few new
bells and whistles. Instead, it improves installation with automated
update features and boasts improved print features such as the ability
to print out individual schedules. Also new: users can save returns in
PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format, a very handy feature; in the past, users
had to keep old versions of QuickTax handy if they wanted to view their
saved returns.
Intuit Canada has beefed up QuickTax product support: the product's
built-in help has been improved and its support staff has been
increased by 50 per cent. Access to support is free for QuickTax
customers.
QuickTax has used product activation for several years; installation is
tied to a single computer. A single purchase of the product allows the
buyer to prepare up to six returns for individuals earning over
$20,000. (An unlimited number of returns below that threshold can be
prepared). Additional returns can be purchased if needed.
As in previous years, QuickTax is available in a variety of packages:
the standard version costs $40. A $60 custom edition includes
retirement, investment and small business modules; the user can install
any single module. For $80, the platinum edition installs all three
custom modules along with a set of tax and investment publications and
guides, tips, and income trackers. A $250 platinum 100 edition adds the
ability to prepare up to 100 returns. And the $100 Quicken Suite
bundles QuickTax Standard along with Intuit's well-known Quicken XG
personal finance software.
Intuit Canada also offers online tax returns (
www.quicktaxweb.ca)
featuring a
fast track interview for users with simple returns and new family
pricing of $20 plus $5 for each additional family return. Nice feature:
online customers can view their proposed return prior to being asked to
pay for the service. Online customers with income below $20,000 can
access the service for free.
Former competitor TaxWiz, now also owned by Intuit Canada, is a
completely separate product built by a different development team. It
offers a more basic product for $25, along with an online version (
www.taxwiz.ca). Both
QuickTax and
TaxWiz are NetTax certified, allowing users to send their returns
directly from their personal computers (or from the online versions)
without having to mail in printed versions.
Intuit's Smith foresees future partnerships with institutions producing
electronic tax statements. This would allow users to receive digital
versions of their payroll and investment forms that could be
automatically entered into their tax software resulting in almost
automated tax returns.
While many Canadian divisions of large software companies exist as
local marketers for products produced elsewhere, Intuit Canada creates
products such as QuickTax, TaxWiz, and WillExpert (for will
preparation) designed from the ground up for Canada.