Tax season will be kicking off in a few weeks in the US. At least it will be for the proactive among us. Most of the rest won't even consider their taxes until the second week of April.

I like tackling my taxes early and every year at about this time I am faced with the proposition of going with TurboTax (which I have used for over a decade) or switching to the cheaper TaxCut software from H&R Block.

Last year things came to a head when I found out that some of the investment tax wizards I needed were moved from TurboTax Deluxe to TurboTax Premier and I had to buy an upgrade in the middle of doing my taxes. It was pretty annoying, but it was easier to pay to unlock the upgrade than switch to a new software package mid-stream.

This year it looks like the people from H&R Block are really sweetening the deal by offering much more for much less in their assorted TaxCut software versions. The question is whether it is worth trying something new and risking having to start all over with a more expensive product later or simply going with the more expensive product that you know works.

I checked out the TaxCut Software Complete Features List and it appears that this software should do everything that I expect it to. But I will only find out by taking a chance and making the leap.

Does anyone have any advice? What do you use? How complicated are your taxes? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Technorati Tags: taxes, tax software

Somebody's feeling the heat. Today, under presumed pressure from rising star Chitika, Google has changed the terms for their Adsense for Publishers and launched a new referral program complete with banners. (See sidebar on right)

Publishers may now add 1 Adsense referral banner and 1 Firefox referral banner in addition to the previously allowed number of ad boxes, link ads and search boxes on each page with content.

The payout for Adsense referrals is quite large: $100 to the referrer when the referred reaches their first $100 payout. For every Firefox referral, you may receive $1 if the referred is from a qualifying country and installs with the Google toolbar.

With Google ads being so ubiquitous these days, I am not sure where you are going to find web publishers that are not already aware or signed up. However, Google seems to think they are out there and they definitely want your help to find them.