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Intuit Foresees Tax Filing Dip

Brad Smith

Intuit anticipates that the number of taxpayers filing returns for tax year 2009 will dip one to two percentage points, giving the country two consecutive years in which the number of returns has fallen. The statistic was given by company executives as they made presentations at year-end investors' conferences held by major Wall Street firms. The conversations were made available via Webcasts from Intuit's Web site.

 

Intuit CFO Neil Williams used those statistics at the Nasdaq OMX Investor Program in London this week. He did not discuss the impact on tax and accounting firms. His information centered on use of retail products, such as his company's TurboTax software, and retail tax preparation stores. He did predict that Intuit has an opportunity to move consumers away from the stores and from pen and paper.

Speaking at Credit Suisse Technology in Scottsdale, Ariz., on the same day, Brad Smith, Intuit's CEO, gave more detail about the competition with the tax stores. While in most years the number of customers gained from tax stores equals those lost to the chains, things were different in the last tax season.

"Last year was the first year we took more people from tax stores than we lost to the tax stores," Smith said. "It’s usually pretty even."

Smith also discussed the expected impact of TurboTax for Online Banking. That system enables users to download data from their online bank accountants and to download the W-2 and quickly finish the preparation of the return.

Banks are enthusiastic about the potential because, "98 percent of the time the consumer deposits that refund into the bank," Smith continued. He also said such customers are substantial more profitable for the banks.

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