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A survey conducted for CCH's CompleteTax operates found something that should surprise no one: Younger taxpayers are more likely to use online tax preparation than are other age groups. And while this reflects the attitude of do-it-yourselfers it's not hard to see how it translates into the professional market. The survey was conducted by CompleteTax, CCH's online tax preparation product, by Opinion Research Corporation. These people are moving into positions of responsibility and they are going to want to do everything online. That's not a big news flash either. But it's something to prepare for, although even among the young, online is not yet the predominant way of getting taxes done.

Among those 18 to 34 years old, 16 percent plan to use online programs this season, compared to 2 percent of those who are more than 65 years old. Paid preparers still lead are the method of choice, 69 percent of the older taxpayers will go with a pro but only 55 percent of those 34 and younger would do so. And manual preparation was still the choice of 17 percent. That topped both the 11 percent going online and the 10 percent of the DIY crowd who will use software.

But it's not hard to see the trends because vendors are putting their money on the online betting space. In the last half of 2006, Intuit, Thomson and CCH all outlined their plans for professional online tax products, although it's a safe bet that these are not going to be adopted in large numbers in the 2010 tax season.

Among the tax chains, Jackson Hewitt Online was just announced. H&R Block revamped a program that lets taxpayers use online preparation that gets a professional review under a program called "Best of Both" while Liberty Tax has its new eSmart Tax program, which has a higher-priced edition that provides for professional review.

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