Review: Acorah Software Taxcalc 2008 financial software

According to Benjamin Franklin: “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”

There’s not much IT can do to prolong your lifespan, but software such as Taxcalc 2008 can help when it comes to taxes.

An official HMRC partner product, the version of Taxcalc we tried was Personal 6, which enables up to six individual returns to be made for the 2007/08 tax year.

However, versions tailored for small businesses and limited partnerships are also available, the basic business package (£80 ex Vat), for example, supporting corporation tax and director/partner filings as well as ordinary employee returns.

Implementations for accountants and other professional advisers are another option (from £100 ex Vat).

However, it’s important to understand you can’t carry over unused submissions to the following year – you have to buy a new licence and start all over again.

Once registered with HMRC for online filing, all you have to do is start the Taxcalc program, enter your username and password and choose the option to create a new return.

Unlike the software on the Government’s website, you fill in Taxcalc forms and save them offline before submitting to them to Revenue & Customs. Of course, you’ll need to have all your data to hand, but as well as entering data directly via on-screen facsimiles of the official forms, there’s a so-called Simplestep mode that takes a much simpler questionnaire approach.

You can switch between the two modes as required, and if you used Taxcalc in 2007, start by importing that information rather than re-entering your employer reference, address details and so on. You can then, if you want, compare this year’s figures with last as you go.

In our tests, Taxcalc made entering basic data very easy indeed, with no need to wade through often irrelevant questions on the off chance that they might need to be answered anyway, or a zero figure entered.

Tax calculations are made and data saved automatically as you go and we particularly liked the ability to share out income – such as interest from joint investments – automatically, rather than having to calculate this manually.

Other nice features include the option to mark entries as provisional, perhaps while you’re waiting for a statement or advice, access useful tax saving tips and help in filling out the form. You can also send in anonymous returns for the Acorah support team to troubleshoot if problems arise.

There’s also full support for capital gains calculations where information captured via Simplestep is used to create the schedules needed to accompany the main form. However, you still need your wits about you. For example, we mistakenly reported a massive capital gains loss when, in fact, we’d made a profit – remember, this isn’t an expert system.

When it comes to filing itself, it’s possible to test the service before submitting it for real, with instant confirmation when the final return is submitted. You can also generate a paper copy, if you wish. Naturally we’d recommend the online route and Taxcalc if you don’t already have software of your own. Just make sure you do it early in case the server crashes under the strain – as has been known.