The ATR, which is free as part of TurboTax 1040 products for tax year 2000, imports the most common tax information -- wages, interest, dividends and stock transactions -- from participating companies, and automatically enters the data into Quicken TurboTax, the company said.

ATR also simplifies transferring tax-related data from Quicken, QuickBooks and other financial software with its Just-in-Time imports. TurboTax lets users select specific tax-related data for automatic entry into the correct forms. For example, TurboTax transfers charitable contribution information via the Just-in-Time import to automatically fill in the Schedule B charitable deduction section.

In a move to deliver ATR to consumers, Intuit said it is joining forces with payroll processors, financial institutions and e-business application providers. Intuit estimates that 15 to 20 million W-2s and 1099s will be available for import directly into TurboTax forms this coming tax season, with significantly more planned next tax season.

Participating W-2 providers for tax year 2000 are Ceridian, PeopleSoft and ProBusiness. These companies are offering all of their corporate clients the ability to make W-2 forms available to their employees via ATR. Participating financial institutions, which are making stock and mutual fund data available through the Automated Tax Return, are Fidelity Investments, Salomon Smith Barney, TD Waterhouse, T. Rowe Price and The Vanguard Group, said Intuit.

-- SmartPros News Staff

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