It's tax time, and rather than digging out your calculator and sharpening your pencils, why not input all the data into the latest tax app? The choice comes down to two long-standing rivals: H&R Block TaxCut and Intuit TurboTax. While TaxCut continues to improve its ease of use and provides stellar technical support, we have to give the edge once again to TurboTax. Not only are the questions within TurboTax written in layman's English, the program installs and updates itself faster than its competitor. If you're like most people, you don't want to sit around in the final hours of April 15 waiting for your tax app to update.

On the other hand, this year, the IRS also makes it easy to file for free online--if you qualify. Working with the Free File Alliance, a group of commercial software vendors, the IRS provides links to free online tax preparation software. (The IRS, however, makes no claims about the online software, only that the products listed meet IRS-set minimum standards.) See the IRS site to find out if you qualify.