Well, I finally got around to doing my income taxes.

This year I used TaxActOnline to file. Last year I used TurboTax on the Web, but last year the state of Mass gave its residents a coupon for a discount on that product.

This year, TTotWeb would’ve cost me $40, and TacActOnline was under $20 for its ‘deluxe’ version, and that covered both state and federal returns. If I’d gone no-frills it would’ve cost me $8-ish.

I had some problems with cookies with their site on my new machine (it insisted on thinking I had cookies turned off, no matter what browser I used) so I used my older machine. Differences being XP Pro and a firewall on the non-working machine, and XP Home and no firewall on the working one.

After I got past that, the process was pretty fast; it took me a lot longer to coerce by bubblejet printer to print copies of the forms (for my records…the actual filing was 100% paperless) than it did to do the taxes.

I hate printers an incredible amount. Every time I print something (once or twice a year) I need a new $30 ink cartridge.

Anyway, once past the cookie issue I’d have to say that TaxActOnline seems like a decent service. They sent an email confirming that both returns were transmitted, and in 3-5 days I’m supposed to get a confirmation that the fed and state governments have accepted the returns with no errors.

My refunds, such that they are, will be direct deposited into my checking account.