The impact of personal tax preparation software programs on tax professionals
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Date
2000
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
The researcher used survey research to determine whether or not tax return professionals feel threatened that their clients might switch to using personal tax software to self-prepare their returns. The researcher also tried to determine whether non Big-5 tax professionals feel more threatened than Big-5 professionals. The two general hypotheses are basically: 1) tax return professionals do not feel threatened by the software and 2) non Big-5 professionals feel more threatened than non Big-5 professionals. The researcher further developed more specific hypotheses based on the general hypotheses and the survey questions. The researcher also looked at various trends in an attempt to answer whether or not tax return professionals should feel threatened. The observed trends include computer/Internet use, software use, tax return fees, number of tax return professionals, and tax filing data. The researcher mailed 255 surveys to various tax professionals/offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus. The researcher took many precautions to obtain a good response rate. He achieved an overall response rate of 72%. The survey results do not support all of the specific hypotheses, however they do support the general hypotheses. Through the trend data, the researcher decided that tax professionals should not feel threatened. The researcher offered advice on improving this research for anyone who might want to expand upon it in the future.