First Chicago’s File Taxes area is a standard menu item on the Personal Banking section.

First Chicago (Chicago, IL; $109 billion; 2.2 million ATM cards) is the most prominent financial institution partner of SecureTax. The bank also offers a link for ordering Intuit’s TurboTax ($49.95 using a link to a co-branded version of the Internet Shopping Network, www.isn.com ) along with the Web-based SecureTax option. First Chicago wisely captures user name and address before linking into the SecureTax co-branded site where bank customers enter an offer code to save $5.

The SecureTax engine contains 55,000 individual calculations on 940 forms. The company also supports 45 state tax forms, and offers electronic filing to all 20 states supporting that feature. In all, 1,800 forms are available through the Web site. Other competitors, including Intuit, also offer free Web-based tax preparation, but usually the forms supported are limited to a few of the most common ones. Security First Technologies www.s1.com Security First Network Bank’s sister company, designed the security architecture for SecureTax.

The benefits of electronic filing:

•  Refunds in as little as 10 days (a JavaScript program provides users with the estimated date of their refund if they submit their returns that day)
•  Receive an IRS acknowledgement that they received your return
•  Ability to store last year’s returns

SecureTax banner is displayed on AltaVista when searching on any term containing the word “tax.”

We wouldn’t advise getting into this business yourself. The price for Web-based or downloadable software including online filing has dropped to $5 to $15 at most providers (see table). A few, such as Intuit and Block Financial, still offer more expensive shrink-wrapped versions, though both are unveiling low-cost Web services this season.

Contacts: At Universal Tax Systems in Rome, GA, Randy J. Tullos is CEO; Naomi Williams is Mkt. Dir., (706)232-7757, naomi.williams@universalsystems.com .

Source: IRS, 1/26/98, www.irs.treas.gov