The Internet Over-Hyped as a Source for Tax Advice

The Internet Over-Hyped as A Source for Tax Advice

Professional tax preparers have been warned, and consumers would do well to heed the advice: income tax information you find on the World Wide Web is likely to be old, out-of-date, and just plain wrong, according to Alan Sumutka, professor of accounting at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ.

Review any tax journal and you'll find lengthy lists of World Wide Web sites that are said to contain tax information. There are purportedly sites for the Code, IRS Regulations, administrative pronouncements, court decisions--the Web would seem an invaluable information source. Click on a site, and the information's at the tax pro's fingertips.

Not so fast, according to a recent study by Sumutka. He tried it, and "after hundreds of hours of "surfing the web" concluded that it is "not that easy and the information is not that useful either."

The basic problem, Sumutka found, is that the truly valuable information about tax laws that practitioners currently buy remains valuable, and nobody's going to be giving it away on the Web any time soon.

Sumutka's study was published in Taxation for Lawyers.

Contact Alan Sumutka at Rider University at 609-896-5193 or Earle Rommel in the university news office at 609-896-5192.