Tax help available on-line

An Iowa-based “virtual bank” is partnering with a tax preparation computer service known as Quicken TurboTax so anyone who’s on-line can access a high-tech tax program.Jim Jacobsen is Chief Information Officer of Principal Bank, which offers traditional banking services over the Internet, telephones & A-T-M’s. He says Quicken TurboTax is available on the virtual bank’s website and can make the tedious task of doing taxes much less taxing.While TurboTax is free to use for filling out one’s tax forms, there is a $9.95 fee to e-file them. He says Principal Bank customers can get a full refund. Jacobsen says he’s confident the website is secure for filing taxes or for any financial transaction.The Des Moines-based virtual bank first went on-line 20 months ago and now has 11-thousand customers globally — about a third of them in Iowa. For more information, surf to: www.principal.com