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• The Good: Interfaces are nearly identical for both products. Jargon is kept light and basic, while Help sections are a bevy of coherent information. Setup is simpler on-line, but not overly difficult through Platinum on a PC either. Excellent tips and hints that open your eyes to some unique deductions. Never lose your place in the process of filing, even with QuickTaxWeb, which is good because the process can get too tedious.
• The Bad: Reading through various steps and definitions can be tedious at times. Platinum not as well suited for those who don't have complicated tax forms. Unless it's a short process, going through either one can be tiring and annoying sometimes.
  
  
• The Verdict: Take either one of these and you'll be a beancounter in no time.
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REVIEW:

Tax season.

It can be the best of times or worst of times of the year depending on which side of the ledger you end up on. Find yourself in the red and you might as well start cutting a cheque to the beancounters in Ottawa, but then you could also wind up in the black and see a fat return just in time for the summer.

But the process of doing your taxes has been changing a great deal with the advent of the Internet and tax software applications. Where you had to have faith in accountants to find the loopholes and deliver the best return possible, companies like Intuit are putting that power in your hands instead.

Intuit has been in the tax software business in the Canadian market for two decades, so the name comes with a reputation. The one key difference isn't just the technology, but the options available as well.

I had the opportunity to try out both QuickTax Platinum and QuickTaxWeb simultaneously to see how they both work, and whether there is any significant difference between the two.

Pricing is almost identical with QuickTaxWeb costing you $20 (Cdn.) for a single return with all additional returns levied at $10 apiece. Quicken Suite 2006 is a software bundle of sorts that includes QuickTax Platinum, but also has Quicken VG, which helps you break down your spending habits and expenses to a virtual science. That goes for about $100.

Because both the Web and software editions need Internet access, an obvious concern is security. Intuit uses the same 128-bit encryption banks use for all their on-line banking services, so if you have no qualms about banking on-line, then you shouldn't have a problem here either.

The information you store stays on Intuit servers for three years until it's automatically deleted. So, if you decide to use either Platinum or QuickTaxWeb for next year's return, you can revisit your return from this year and see what kind of changes there may be in the numbers. Not to mention that the software gives you hints and tips on how you can carry over certain expenses and maximize your return.

In this regard, Platinum is better suited to providing more succinct and definitive explanations of what the various tax forms entail and how the information should be inputted. A Help feature will play a clip that shows how the process works, so as not to confuse you when it comes time to crunch the numbers. Well, actually the software will crunch everything for you, but you need to put the right figures in the right boxes before it can do that properly.

There's a factor to consider here though. Despite the lack of jargon in the information and the helpful tools, Platinum comes across as a little heavy-handed for those who just need to file a "basic" return. If a T4 slip is the primary source of information for income earned, along with possibly T5 (investments) and T4RSP (RRSP income) slips, then you might be better served going with QuickTaxWeb.

I say this because the processing is more seamless on the Web version. If you don't have your own business or if you're not earning any capital gains, then inputting a basic return on-line should be fairly straightforward. All you would need to do is check the right boxes, input the figures given to you from your slips, then you'll be prompted to finalize payment for filing.

Once that's done, you have the option of filing your return with NetFile, which according to Intuit, means you can have your return in as little as eight days.

Though the interfaces are virtually the same on both products, Platinum has the advantage of separating some things with different windows. For instance, you can always have the Help and Income Statements window open while working through the process. Not that QuickTaxWeb is outdone, since a separate Help window can be accessed complete with a search bar.

Things get a little more complicated for those who are self-employed, have their own business or are very active with investments, be they real estate or stocks and mutual funds.

There are a variety of different slips for each and they can be overly confusing to navigate through. Naturally, for whatever expenses you have to incur, you need to provide a receipt, but like in a paper return, you need to add everything up and report it in either of these applications.

Thankfully, both Platinum and QuickTaxWeb are so intuitive that they'll pinpoint exactly how much your expenses amount to and what you may have missed that could be eligible for a deduction. Explanations are given to how you can put a certain value to your home office (vis-à-vis your home's value) and write that off, as well as how to properly leverage your energy costs to get a little more back.

In this respect, both versions are big winners. The search bar I mentioned earlier in the Help section of QuickTaxWeb will have a plethora of information to help you understand how much you can utilize your expenses to maximize your return. Assuming that you want to get an idea on whether or not you can forgo declaring tuition income from your last year of university, in order to write it off the following year when you would presumably have a full-time job, the search bar holds answers to that scenario.

This is why I would recommend the on-line version for students. The process is simplified and runs along at a pace that shouldn't overwhelm too many. However, there's also SnapTax.ca, which is a faster tax preparation program that can see you completing a return in 15 minutes. This would also be a good option for those who are filing a return with only a T4 slip in hand.

One of the impressive aspects to both these products is that your lack of knowledge for tax codes and all the financial wizardry that comes with 'getting it all' doesn't really matter because the software holds your hand the whole way through. For someone like myself who much prefers words over numbers, I had a relatively easy experience working with these.

To say that it was exciting or enjoyable would be a stretch, but it certainly had an educational element to it. Rather than having an accountant find loopholes and explain how they can help me, I was able to see for myself how I can make the most of what I had.

Can you ask for any more from tax software?