Computer usage and tax software in a tax practice: AICPA tax division survey results.

• Author: Hoglund, Thomas W.
• Position: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

Trends in computer usage

in the tax practice

For several years now, the AICPA Tax Division's Tax Computer Applications Committee has surveyed Tax Division members on how they use computers in their practices. The survey results are tabulated in the Report on Computer Usage in Tax Practice: Survey Results, which can be obtained by contacting James Clark in the AICPA's Washington office. (Note: The survey presents a tabulation of AICPA Tax Division member responses and does not in any way constitute AICPA endorsement of any product mentioned.)

In 1993, the survey again asked Division members to indicate which tax return preparation package they used and their level of satisfaction with the package. For 1040 packages, CCH Computax's ProSystem fx package had the largest increase in usage. Over 21% of respondents reported using this package, although some of the growth was at the expense of Computax's other software package, 1040 Solutions. Of last year's top five vendors, ChipSoft showed the second highest increase, with 12% of the respondents indicating they used the company's Turbotax program. Of the other top five packages, La-Certe registered about the same percentage of respondents as in past years, while Arthur Andersen's A Plus Tax showed a slight increase.

Respondents' level of satisfaction with the top programs has remained high and fairly constant between years, with Arthur Andersen showing a slight increase and Chipsoft a slight decrease. (This decrease may have been due to problems encountered last year by users of ChipSoft's electronic filing program.)

In the other categories of tax packages, BNA Software continued its strong lead in the individual planning area. The responses for 1041, 1065, 1120 and 1120S software generally followed the same trends seen in 1040 software.

While the number of respondents who filed some of their 1040s electronically remained at 15%, the percentage of returns filed electronically by these respondents increased to 14%. Those practitioners currently using electronic filing estimated that in 1994 the percentage of returns they would file electronically would rise to 19%.

The survey reflected the growing trend toward streamlining the return preparation process based on the enhanced capabilities of today's software. Two-thirds of the respondents indicated that at least part of their return review process is done on the computer screen. Only 26% indicated that the majority of their returns are still...