Both TaxCut and TurboTax offer several ways to get support if you have questions about tax filing or problems with the software. Support from both companies focuses mostly on personal returns, not business. There are some ways to get business tax questions answered from either service.

TaxCut Support

• Customer Support Page
  The TaxCut customer support page is searchable.
  
  
• Digits Community
  The Digits community blog read articles or the newsletter, get an RSS feed, and download podcasts on various topics. You can also respond to various blog posts with questions, comments. A list of topics is easy to find, or you can use the search function.
  
  
• Free Tax Advice
  I was reminded by a TaxCut representative that, "All TaxCut Premium software includes one session with an H&R Block tax professional." For Home & Business, (from the H&B site) One Ask a Tax Advisor session included for your personal taxes. An H&R Block tax professional can help answer your tax question via 1-on-1 phone or e-mail consultation. . Through January 31, you can contact H&R Block for a free tax session. It appears this is a special offer, in addition to the one mentioned above, since it seems to be for all products.
  
  
• Contact Directly
  You can also contact a customer service representative by phone or online chat, if you can't find answers on the Customer Support data base.

TurboTax Support

• Support Blog The blog is a typical blog format, which means only the most recent post shows. But you can search for answers on your topic. If you search on the blog and the answer isn't on the blog, you will see relevant results on the web.
  
  
• Live Community
  Once you log in (to Intuit), you can ask questions. You can search to see if your question has already been asked and answered. Answers are provided TurboTax Pros, SuperUsers, and others in the general community. You can see who is answering your question (TurboTax Pros, for example, are identified), so you can decide if you want to trust the answer. You can also see how many questions this person has answered. There is an index of questions so you can quickly go to a topic.
  
  
• Contact Directly
  You can contact TurboTax from their Contact Page by clicking on the version of TT (or not) and the question. Then you can get quick answers, chat online, email your question, get a callback (they show how long you will have to wait) or schedule a call back at a time convenient to you. I like to use "chat" functions, because it's almost like talking to a real person by phone, without being left on hold or having to deal with a series of options.
  
  
• Free Tax Answers in January
  As I mentioned in a recent blog post, TurboTax is offering a free answer session for users of its products, in January.

Business Tax Questions
As I mentioned above, most of the support provided by TaxCut and TurboTax is for personal tax return questions; I have tried to mention the exceptions above. I guess they figure you really need a tax adviser for a business tax return, and I agree. These things are complex.

Questions on Forum
If you have a general business tax question, you can post it on the Forum and we will see if anyone has an answer.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has a monthly web chat with interesting topics.

• Getting Ready for Tax Season
  
• Prepare for Disaster
  
• Doing Business with the Federal Government
  
• Managing Business Credit

The webchats are printed transcripts, so you can read through them quickly and pick out the parts that are most interesting. Start at the bottom (the first questions) and read up.

I spent some time this weekend preparing W-2s and 1099-MISC forms on TurboTax Home & Business and Tax Cut Home & Business, to see how both programs take you through the process. Preparing W-2 forms and 1099-MISC forms is similar. Here are some features and benefits for both programs:

TaxCut Home and Business
The business portion of TaxCut Home and Business walks you through the process of putting in information for individual employee W-2s and for 1099s. For the employee information, you can also use a spreadsheet that makes input for many employees faster and easier. If you put in the wages, TaxCut calculates the Social Security and Medicare wages automatically. I put in a large wage for an employee, and TaxCut stopped the Social Security portion at $102,000, the Social Security maximum for 2008.

TurboTax Home & Business
TurboTax also walked me through an interview (I didn't see a spreadsheet option). The interview was a little easier to follow than Tax Cut. I didn't see a way to enter many employees quickly, as TaxCut does, but that might be the "forms mode," which I didn't get. I entered my (fictitious) "over the limit" employee, who had $125,000 in wages. TurboTax required me to enter the Social Security wages, so I entered $125,000. TT told me the correct amount was $102,000, and I had to go back and enter the amount. So I entered $100,000. TT didn't correct my error. (It might have done so later in an error review,which I didn't get to yet.)

Terms Explained
I looked on both programs for explanations for terms, like "Advance EIC." Tax Cut did not explain any of these terms, so I guess you're just supposed to know what these mean. Maybe it is one of those, "If you don't know what it means, you don't have to worry about it," kinds of things. TurboTax did have a box to click to get explanations of some of the terms (but not "Advance EIC." Both programs asked me for a state ID number. TC didn't tell me how to get it or to find it in my records. TurboTax explained the various types of "filers," (941, 944, CT-1, etc.), but TaxCut did not.

Entering 1099-MISC Forms
I went back to both programs later to enter 1099s. When I went back to TaxCut, it took me a while to figure out that I had to go back and select a new "return" in order to enter 1099s. With TurboTax, I just clicked on the "1099" tab and I was able to start entering 1099s. The entry process for both programs with the same as for W-2s.

Correcting My Errors
I wanted to see what would happen if I did something incorrectly. So, in box 12 I entered too much for employee contribution to a Health Savings Acct. Neither program warned me that the amount was over the maximum. So, if you make a mistake like this, don't expect the program to bail you out.

Printing Forms
TaxCut had many options for printing forms, including a way for you to run on pre-printed forms of various sizes. I didn't see the pre-printed form option for TurboTax.

An Example of Helpfulness
This is a small item that gave me a sense of the helpfulness of TurboTax compared to TaxCut. Box 12 has many possibilities, and it's very possible that you might have more than 4 items in Box 12 for an employee. Both programs reminded me that I would need another W-2 if there were more than 4 items in Box 12. Only TurboTax let me know I should not include the wage and withholding data for the employee on the second W-2.

Both Have Good Features
In general, I found pluses and minuses for both programs. TaxCut's automatic entry of the Social Security and Medicare wages was a time-saver and it made the possibility of errors less. But I found TurboTax easier to use in general and more helpful in answering my questions as I went along.

Find Answers in the Forum
If you have questions or want additional information, I'll try to help. Go to the forum and post a question. If I can't find the answer, I'll get it from the vendors.

January is the month when employers must complete payroll tax reports for employees and contractors. The due date for these reports in 2009 (for 2008 income) is February 2. So what must you do to complete these reports? Here is a quick list to get you started. Over the next week, I will give you more details on how to fill out a W-2 and 1099-MISC.

What You Need to Prepare. In order to prepare and file W-2 and 1099-MISC forms, you will need to gather the information from your payroll records from 2008. You will also need to find the official tax forms. You cannot use photocopied forms.

Where to Find Official Forms. Here are some suggested sources for those official IRS forms, including the W-2, W-3, and 1099-MISC:

• Request from IRS. The IRS will send you the official forms from the IRS website Online Order page. The forms are free, but they take up to 15 days for receipt.
  
• Included with Tax Prep Software. If you have purchased TurboTax Home and Business or TurboTax Business or TaxCut Home and Business, you can use the W-2/1099 forms preparation sections to prepare these documents.
  
• TurboTax W2/1099 Online Reporter. In addition to the W-2/1099 preparation in its software, TurboTax has a W2/1099 Reporter program that is very easy to use. It allows you to print up to 250 W-2s or 1099-MISC forms.
  
• Buy Online. There are many sites, including the major office supply companies, that will sell you these forms online.

Online Filing. If you have more than 250 forms (W-2s or 1099-MISC forms), you must file online with the Social Security Administration (SSA). If you have fewer than 250 forms, you can still file online. First, you will need to register with the SSA's Business Services Online site.

Tomorrow, I'll share with you my comparison of TaxCut and TurboTax for preparing W-2 forms and 1099-MISC forms.