In my past assessments, TurboTax has sometimes lagged H&R Block in the area of technical help on confusing tax questions - in particular, I’d found its “live” help harder to use.

Few things in life are as dreaded as the prospect of arm-wrestling with the I.R.S. The real enticement here, of course, is the audit help. TurboTax says the services have a value of $117 - a hard-to-verify claim since it doesn’t sell them separately. They also receive “priority care” when they call, as well as identity-theft monitoring. That charge entitles users to help if they’re audited or if someone else files for a tax refund in their name. TurboTax’s MAX benefits, for example, cost an additional $59.99 in early February. All three charged about $35 for each state return. (They also sell downloadable software.) In early February, TurboTax was charging $89.99 for its Self-Employed edition Block, $54.99 for its Premium and TaxAct, $37 for its Premium.

I tried out each provider’s top-level online option. One thing that hasn’t much changed this year is pricing. TaxAct kept doing things its own quirky way, as it long has, but it capably handled the basics. This year, Block sharpened its technology - it even beat TurboTax on a critical task, uploading a prior year’s return - while TurboTax improved its telephone helpline.

TurboTax used to stand out with its ease of use and technological polish, while Block provided better help. My tryouts suggested that the differences between TurboTax and Block were smaller than in the past.

Turbotax 2016 premier cost