The IT Nerd

It’s tax time in Canada again. There are many options out there to get your taxes done if you want to do them yourself. One of them is Ufile For Windows and it’s a good option for those who are comfortable doing their taxes and those who are new at it.

So, first let me speak about Ufile as a company. They’re not small as they’re part by Dr Tax, and Dr Tax is now part of Thomson Reuters who is one of Canada’s biggest companies. That means this isn’t some “mom and pop shop” that’s putting out this software. They have the experience and the backing to do this right.

I tried Ufile For Windows out on my Windows 7 virtual machine and a few things jumped out to me:

• You can  import your TurboTax (desktop) or H&R Block (desktop) tax file and use it in Ufile For Windows. That way, you can use all the info that you have from previous tax apps and pick up from where those programs left off. Clever!
• I’m a computer geek and not an accountant which means that I’m not up to date on all the latest tax laws. Fortunately Ufile For Windows has a simple and flexible interface that makes preparing your tax return largely painless. By working your way through an interview process, they guarantee that you’ll get the most money back in every scenario. The wizard is very clear and easy to understand and anyone can follow it.
• A cool feature that I loved was having Ufile For Windows download all my info from the CRA so that I don’t have to spend a lot of time filling in a lot of blanks and I can focus on doing my taxes.

All of this makes Ufile For Windows tax software that you should consider using before the end of April which is the deadline for getting your taxes done. It will cost you $19.99 CDN to get up to 4 returns done. That’s not a high price to pay to make sure you get as much money back from the taxman as you can.

It’s tax season in Canada. That means that you have to get all of your receipts and other tax related items in order so that you can do one of two things. Either do it yourself or get someone to do it for you. I traditionally have done the former. But I usually rely on software to do it for me. In the past I’ve bought software and because I have a Mac, I ran it in a virtual machine. This year I had the opportunity to do something different. I tried UFile Online which is a web based software that allows you to prepare your taxes. Because it is we based, that makes it platform agnostic. That’s good for a Mac user like me.

Now if you’ve never used software like this before, you’re likely wondering how anyone other than accountant can use it. The answer is that the software literally interviews you and collects info along the way. It also presents you with tax credits that are correct for your circumstance so that saves some questioning. If that’s not enough, it also has something called the MaxBack Refund Analyzer which looks for other ways to maximize your refund. The net result is that something that could have been hard has been made easy and anyone can use it to prepare their taxes. I should also note that Ufile.ca is certified for NETFILE which is the Canadian Government’s electronic tax filing service. This way you can submit your tax return electronically and get your refund faster,

Security is important when it comes to online tax filing services. Thus I really like that Ufile goes out of its way to explain how secure it is. If you want the executive summary, I can say they’ve gone about securing your personal information is a way that it shouldn’t leak out to someone who shouldn’t have it.

The biggest strength that UFile.ca has is price. It’s $15.95 for one return. Add your spouse and you have to fork over $10 more and dependents are free. That’s cheaper than most tax software out there. So, if you want to do your own taxes long before the end of April, I would take a look at Ufile Online as they tick off all the right boxes. It’s easy to use, it’s secure and it’s priced affordably as well as being platform agnostic. That makes it difficult to beat in my mind.