UPDATE 2-Intuit cuts outlook, sees small business cautious

* Q1 EPS -9 cents, beats Wall St view of -12 cents

* Cuts full-year outlook on sales to small businesses

* Sees Q2 EPS 40-42 cents, misses Street view 46 cents

* Keeps outlook same on consumer tax services software (Adds company comment, details on quarter)

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Intuit Inc (INTU.O), maker of TurboTax tax preparation software, posted a quarterly loss and lowered its full-year outlook, saying small businesses were being unusually cautious.

The company cut its fiscal 2009 forecasts for sales of QuickBooks accounting software and for revenue from payroll and bill payment processing services, as its small business customers get squeezed by the deepening recession.

The software maker noticed there hasn't been an inflow of new QuickBook users, which normally occurs during periods of economic downturn, and its payroll and bill payment processing service was hit by lower merchant transaction volume, said Intuit CEO Brad Smith.

"Today's environment is certainly different than what we anticipated," Smith said on a conference call with analysts.

For the fiscal second quarter, which ends on Jan. 31, Intuit forecast earnings per share, excluding some tax items, of 40 cents to 42 cents, below Wall Street expectations of 46 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

It forecast revenue in the second quarter to rise 3 to 5 percent to $860 million to $880 million.

The Mountain View, California-based company normally reports losses in its fiscal first and fourth quarters because they do not fall in the tax season, when consumers would buy Intuit's tax preparation software.

Profits in the second and third quarters usually more than compensate for that loss.

Intuit cut its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $3.26 billion to $3.38 billion, or growth of 6 to 10 percent, from its previous estimate of growth of 9 to 12 percent. The new forecast was in line with the average Wall Street estimate of $3.33 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Conversely, Intuit kept its forecasted 2009 revenue for its consumer tax services steady at growth of 8 to 12 percent, or $1 billion to $1.04 billion, despite a recent drop in discretionary consumer spending during the global economic downturn.

"We know the government will want 140 million tax returns filed regardless of economy," said Smith, referring to the unchanged guidance for tax services. He added: "We stack up extremely nicely at $65 for one of our mid-tier lines of TurboTax versus $180 for a tax store, despite what's going on in the marketplace."

The company posted a fiscal first-quarter net loss of $52.1 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with a loss of $20.8 million, or 6 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items, Intuit's net loss was 9 cents a share, better than the loss of 12 cents forecast by analysts, according to Reuters Estimates.

First-quarter revenue rose 8 percent to $481 million, slightly less than the average analysts' forecast of $483.23 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

Shares of Intuit were unchanged in after-hours trading, compared to their close of $20.55 on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Jennifer Martinez; Editing by Gary Hill, Bernard Orr)