Preparing tax returns isn't most people's idea of a great hobby. The good news is that there are several tax preparation programs for the Atari on the market. The bad news is that you get what you pay for, and sometimes you'll wish you had paid a little more. Tax Command is one of the less expensive tax programs available, and while it does accelerate the completion of your Federal tax return, it has some limitations.
My individual income tax return is fairly involved, with itemized deductions and dividend income, some capital gains and the continual hope of a tax break, thanks to income averaging. I got Tax Command hoping it would speed up the lengthy computaions involved with income averaging, making it easy to add new deductions if I discovered them after the initial pass through the program. These expectations were only partially realized.
Tax Command for the Atari comes in two different versions. The older version is obtainable on cassette or disk and is designed for 16K computers. I regard this program as a barely adequate tax preparation tool. It lacks the ability to store data on the tape or disk for additional future processing, and it cannot provide any printouts of your results.
Essentially, all this program does is arithmetic. The new program requires at least 40K of RAM and is considerably more useful. Program files for both versions are present on the single cassette or disk you get when you purchase Tax Command. Both are written in Atari BASIC.
Tax Command comes with a 16-page, typeset user's guide with a table of contents and index. The program is available for seven models of home computer besides the Atari, and the user's manual comes in the "one size fits all" category. Little information in it pertains specifically to the Atari version. However, the general procedures described for entering data and performing calculations are useful.
A sample set of mythical financial information is supplied with instructions, to use for practice before you tackle your own return. Instructions for the more sophisticated, long version of Tax Command do not appear in the user's guide. The input prompts in the program itself are very cryptic, so it will help to keep your tax forms in front of you.
Data is entered through a series of menus pertaining to different sections of Form 1040 and other schedules. The lines in each menu are labeled with the line number to which they correspond on Form 1040.
One character per line is highlighted in inverse video. To select a menu option, simply press the key corresponding to the highlighted leter. You can then enter numeric information such as salaries, medical deductions, and so on.
The main menu lets you move to submenus for making different kinds of entries, so changes are readily made if you uncover a new deduction or get a late W-2 statement. Movement among menus is very easy and rapid.
Some options, such as "other income" or "tax payments", involve lists of items. Numbers must be entered for all items in a list, even if the entry is zero, as already shown on the screen. Changing an entry here involves retyping all items in the list. If you just press RETURN at unchanged items to try to save time, you'll see a reminder to enter only numeric values. To my irritation, this message remained on the screen for nearly ten seconds.
As you make entries in the various displays, the dollar (and cents) values are shown on the menu lines. Changes are immediately reflected in the new total amounts. You can calculate your tax due at any time with a couple of keystrokes.
The main menu in the long version allows you to save your data on disk or retrieve a stored file for additional processing. Only one data file can be stored on each disk, so tell all your friends to bring their own data disks.
Users of the short form are out of luck: no storage of intermediate results is possible. This is a major limitation in the short version of Tax Command
Something odd happens if an error occurs during the data save step. A display asking if the drive is on and the data disk is in appears, erases and reappears no less than forty times! Twice would have been sufficient. Other than this, error trapping in Tax Command is quite good. There is no apparent way to exit from the program short of pressing the BREAK key.
Another main menu option allows you to print your results. This produces a very simple one-page printout showing Form 1040 line numbers, short line descriptions and the numeric values to be filled in on your Form 1040.
Due to a small bug in the program, the line which should show your refund due doesn't appear on the printout. As with all inexpensive tax return programs, these numbers must be entered manually onto your own tax forms.
No itemizations are provided for any other schedules, another limitation of Tax Command. Individual subtotals for Schedule A (itemized deductions), such as medical, taxes, interest, etc., are displayed on the computer screen but not on the printed report.
Income averaging is a nice way to try to reduce the amount of Federal tax you owe. At least, it's usually worth checking to see if it makes a difference. Tax Command lets you enter the income from your four base years (again, the prompts are so abbreviated that you really have to know what you're doing) and, in just a few seconds, calculates your averageable income and the tax due using income averaging.
Still, no intermediate calculations, which must be entered on Schedule G to satisfy the IRS, are shown. Therefore, if you do income average, you must perform the computations by hand to get these necessary intermediate results. This practically negates the benefit of having the computer carry out the math, except to see if income averaging will reduce your tax liability.
As with virtually all tax preparation programs for home computers, Tax Command does not supply tax advice or information about tax laws. On the plus side, the purchase price is tax deductable.
In summary, Tax Command's long form is a useful aid for the preparation of your Federal income tax return if you have a disk drive and at least 40K of RAM in your Atari. The 16K version is too limited to be of much use, unless your tax return is so simple that it's easily done by hand anyway.
The program is easy to use, although the user's manual provides little assistance. Data entry is rapid, and the tax calculations take only a few seconds. The results for my 1983 tax due came out $2 off the result I got using another more expensive tax program, but I'm not sure which is in error.
With a little more attention to detail and utility, this could be a fine tax preparation program. However, I don't recommend Tax Command for anyone who uses income averaging or wants a printed itemization of data for schedules besides the basic Form 1040.
In those cases, a program like the Tax Advantage from Continental is a better choice, although close to three times the list price of Tax Command. Remember, you get what you pay for.