CPA's and attorneys have standards of care and education that non-licensed tax preparers do not. I can not count the number of amended returns I have done to correct non-licensed tax preparer returns in my career. Bob you need a bigger sample size than one. (Certainly you considered this because your "depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards". And why not provide the name for your expert reference at the software company? The one and only third party source in your article. Oh yes it is true that CPA's make mistakes. I make them more often than I want to. But Bob, sometimes it is my client who catches my error and I often give them credit with "nice catch, thank you".