2012 tax software survey.

• Author: Bonner, Paul

In this year's survey by The Tax Adviser and the Journal of Accountancy, 1 more than 6,000 CPAs assessed the software they used to prepare 2011 tax returns, revealing what they liked and disliked about their software. Overall, respondents were pleased with their software: On average, the products rated 4.3 out of 5. Ease of use, comprehensiveness, and accuracy were the mostliked features.

This year's respondents also identified many of the same drawbacks as in prior years: The price of some of the leading largefirm products was a deterrent for some preparers, but users of the more budget-conscious products most often faulted them for lacking all the forms they needed or not being comprehensive enough in other ways.

This year, the survey also checked on newer ways of deploying and using tax software, finding that cloud computing, for example, while not yet wide-spread, is a growing trend among return preparers.

This year's survey saw a decline in the market share for the three products named by a majority of respondents as the software they predominantly used to prepare returns. ProSystem fx Tax (CCH) (26%), Lacerte (Intuit) (19%), and UltraTax CS (Thomson Reuters) (18%) together still accounted for nearly 63% of responses. However, last year, these three products were used by 75% of respondents.

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The growth in other products resulted in two of them garnering enough, responses to be included in the survey analysis: TaxACT (2nd Story Software) and TurboTax (Intuit). Almost 4% of respondents reported using one of these programs to prepare returns for clients. While still a small number, this represents a large increase over prior years: In both 2010 and 2011, 0.7% of respondents said they used TaxACT or TurboTax to prepare returns for clients.

Other software included in this analysis (in descending order of percentage of respondents using them) are ProSeries (Intuit) (12%), Drake (Drake Software) (6%), ATX (CCH Small Firm Services) (6%), GoSystem Tax RS (Thomson Reuters) (4%), and TaxWorks (RedGear Technologies) (1%).

Overall user satisfaction was little changed from previous years, with the ratings for most products hovering near the 4.3 (out of 5) average for all products (last year, all products also averaged 4.3). UltraTax claimed the overall top spot again this year at 4.5, narrowly edging out Lacerte (4.4). Exhibit 1 shows products' ratings for ease of use and versatility in several categories.

Exhibit 1: Overall ratings All ATX Drake GoSystem Lacerte proseries products Overall rating 4.3 4.3 4.3 3.4 4.4 4.3 How easy was the 1.44 4.6 4.7 4.1 4.5 4.7 update/ installation process? How easy was the 4.1 4.4 4.3 3.2 4.4 4.4 software to use? How well did it 4.3 4.5 4.6 3.4 4.3 4.4 handle updates to forms? How well did it 4.2 4.2 4.3 3.4 4.3 4.4 handle transfers of data within returns? How easy was 4.2 4.3 4.5 3.4 4.2 4.3 paperless electron?ic filing (including, for example, sending PDF attachments)? How well did it 4.0 4.1 4.2 3.3 4.0 3.9 handle multistate business returns? Would you 83.6% 88.6% 95.2% 45. J % 85.2% 90.7% recommend it to some?one starting a tax practice? Prosystem TaxACT Tax turbo Ultratax fx wprks tax cs Overall rating 4.2 4.2 4.i; 4.2 4.5 How easy was the 4.1 4.8 4.4: 4.7 4.4 update/ installation process? How easy was the 3.8 4.4 4.3 4.4 4.2 software to use? How well did it 4.1 4.4 4.2 4.6 4.5 handle updates to forms? How well did it 4.0 4.3 4.1 4.5 4.4 handle transfers of data within returns? How easy was 4.1 4.2 4.3: 4.2 4.3 paperless electron?ic filing (including, for example, sending PDF attachments)? How well did it 3,9 3.6 3.7 4.5 handle multistate business returns? Would you 79.5% 90.7% 88.6% 77.3% 88.8% recommend it to some?one starting a tax practice? Numeric ratings are the average for each product's users on a...