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H&R Block made an insightful point last week about how taxpayers want to handle their returns. And in doing so, it attacked a central point of Intuit's message about online preparation. And I think Block is on the mark.

The central point of D-I-Y in almost any field, from building a deck to plumbing, is that the person doing the work has some belief that they are able to handle the job. Sometimes that view is mistaken, a subject of TV advertisements and sitcoms. But people who are truly lacking in confidence don't usually try to install new kitchen fixtures. Taxes are different. As Block points out, doing taxes on line is a lot different than buying a book online.

Very few people want to prepare a tax return. They must prepare a tax return. The only choice is the method. Thinking about the times I did my own returns, I remember how often the Internal Revenue Service found the mistakes and recalculated the results. It's different today than when I started my career. Products like TurboTax will catch most of those mistakes. However, the fact that for the next tax season Intuit will offer an "Ask a Tax Expert Service" suggests Intuit agrees there are limits to D-I-Y. Intuit will offer users access to tax professionals, connecting from inside its various versions of TurboTax.

What Block did not say was that some of the difference in the desire to seek assistance may also relate to the digital divide. That well-publicized phenomenon has to do with those with access to high-speed Internet and those who do not.

People starting their careers usually lack confidence in a number of areas of their lives. Preparing their own tax returns is one of these. Block's point is not that the online market will not grow. It's point is that explosive growth will tail off in about three years.

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