G-I-G-O

Anyone who has worked with computers is familiar with the phrase "Garbage In, Garbage Out." It means that the quality of the end product is directly based on the quality of what you put in. Nowhere is this more relevant than with tax software. There are dozens of free and inexpensive programs that will prepare tax returns both on one's own computer and via the web. Most people think that these can replace the services of a tax professional, saving them the fees they pay.

My attitude regarding these programs hasn't changed one bit since the first version of Turbo-Tax was introduced to consumers over a dozen years ago. Contrary to other tax professionals who felt threatened by this perceived competition, I have no problem with them and do not consider them to be any competition to true tax professionals. They are competition to the type of tax preparers called "Form Fillers," who just fill in forms without using any brain power as to the consequences. In fact, I have long had several clients who use Turbo-Tax as their organizers instead of the ones I give them. They send me their printouts and I then use them as the basis for entries into my tax software, Lacerte. The figures I come up with are almost always very different from the ones the client had.

It has nothing to do with the fact that Lacerte is the most expensive tax software on the market. It is completely a result of knowing what to put where. An amateur working with Lacerte would still do no better because it takes knowledge to know how & where to enter data. Contrary to popular belief, tax return preparation is more of a creative art than an exact science. That is why the same set of facts given to a dozen different tax preparers can result in a dozen completely different tax returns, all of which could be legally correct.

Which brings me to my persistent reminder of how important it is to select the proper tax professional to work with. GIGO applies here as well.

KMK
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 3/05/2002 10:26:00 AM Send this post: