Tax Guru-Ker$tetter Letter

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Do It Yourself Tax Software
PC Magazine has some reviews of tax programs for consumers. These do not cover programs for us professionals to use. I have no comments on any of the consumer software other than the usual GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) warning. While they can help fill in the tax forms, they cannot take the place of a knowledgeable and creative tax professional. I have never felt threatened by any computer program. In fact, some of our clients use these programs in place of our standard organizer when submitting their info to us every year. Needless to say, the final results we end up with almost always look dramatically different from what the clients had come up on their own. These tax programs can do as accurate a job as the mass market tax prep services that are nothing but "form fillers." Those companies should worry about losing business to do it yourselfers.

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 1/22/2004 06:24:00 PM Send this post: