If JK Scratcher 2001 is tax prep on training wheels, TaxCat is a high performance Ducati motorcycle. The 2001 version is lightning fast and sports a slick new "drag and drool" interface. It also offers the most extensive set of "What if" templates in any tax software program to date. Whereas JK Scratcher 2001 enables you to do simple stuff, like computing the loss of litter because of human incompetence, TaxCat 2001 enables you to project 53 different retirement portfolios including those based on theft of jewelry from humans and the sale of your humans' belongings while they're at work. 

If you hate paying taxes, you'll love TaxCat's attitude - when the program computes your bottom line taxes, you'll hear a flushing sound as Windows Media Player opens, and you'll view an animation showing the amount of money you owe, in one dollar bills, being sucked into a toilet.

One maddening element of TaxCat 2001 is that you can't turn off the profanity checker, so your custom reports will have to bear titles like Year 2001 #$*#&# NON-DEDUCTIBLES, rather than the names you'd really like to give them.

As for guarantees, TaxCat maintains its unorthodox, though highly effective, approach to supporting your tax payment efforts. If you're convicted of tax evasion, prior to being shipped off to the slammer, you'll receive an unlock code for a secret section of the TaxCat program (sorry, deluxe version only). Once you've activated your code, you'll find extensive floor plans of the correctional institute to which you've been assigned and a library of multimedia escape plans customized for your cell. You can also opt for TaxCat's $39.95 New Identity Kit, which includes a fake driver's license, clip-on whiskers, beard, and moustache; eyeglasses; Velcro stripes and spots; and a five-inch tail extender. (These things seem to work. Several of my esteemed Morning Hairball colleagues, including Mama Mothball and our boss, Ruffles Murdog, are reportedly NOT who they say they are.) 

Minor nuisances aside, both programs are winners; the only losers are those cats who don't take advantage of every deduction they're entitled to - and then some!