The Mountain View, Calif.-based maker of the TurboTax and Quicken programs concluded its books were accurate following an internal investigation into the handling of stock options dating back to August 1997.

Intuit intends to pass on its findings to securities regulators and the U.S. Attorney's office, which had subpoenaed the company in June for documents pertaining to its past stock option grants.

Like scores of other companies, Intuit found itself under scrutiny as authorities try to determine if insiders had manipulated employee stock options to increase the chances for higher profits.

Most of the problems to surface so far have revolved around "backdating." Under this practice, insiders try to make the rewards more lucrative by retroactively pinning the option's exercise price to a low point in the stock's value. Usually, a stock option's exercise price coincides with the market value at the time of a grant to give the recipient an incentive to drive the price higher.

If companies backdate options without accounting for the move, it can cause profits to be overstated and taxes to be underpaid.

That's why several prominent companies, including Apple Computer Inc., Juniper Networks Inc. and McAfee Inc., have warned investors to disregard their past income statements until they can figure out if figures need to be revised because of stock option troubles.