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by kdragon 4440 days ago
Have you ever thought about building tax software for the other side of the fence i.e preparers? I'd love a chat about why the existing competition sucks and what's truly missing from the software market for tax professionals.
2 comments
ecolner 4440 days ago
Tax pros are like developers, most comfortable closer to the bare metal if you will. They use a separate product line that mimics the actual forms closely. They don't like the interview style because it just slows them down when they're barreling through hundreds of returns. Beyond the UI, there's no difference in the calculations they work with so that should tell you something.
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ronyeh 4440 days ago
Maybe (someday) you can build two different UIs to the same return. For example, I can hire a CPA and then share with him/her my return. I can upload the docs and numbers, and the CPA can do the magic using the bare metal UI.

I heard from my CPA that Intuit provides very poor support for their ProSeries / Lacerte software, because they are trying to get everyone to use Turbotax instead. So even CPAs have a pain point that you could solve.

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scrabble 4440 days ago
Is there a particular problem with the software used by tax professionals? Clearly they're not using consumer-focused software since their needs would be different.

It seems like a domain a developer typically wouldn't have much insight into without a tax professional talking about it openly, or having worked on a product previously.

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ecolner 4440 days ago
Tax pros care about speed even more than consumers, but I'm not sure there's a problem with that. It's just a different mindset.
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scrabble 4440 days ago
kdragon's post seemed to indicate that he's aware of problems on the professional side and has ideas on how to fix them. I was curious about that.

I find it odd that there are no free online tax filers in the US? TurboTax has a free version in Canada, and some competitors do as well. I like the idea though. Tax filing can always be made easier.(nevermind, a quick search shows that both TT and H&R have free filers.)

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ecolner 4438 days ago
Free for filers that make $58,000 or less.
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