Intuit’s recent star-studded TurboTax ad encouraging consumers to break up with their CPAs and tax preparers in exchange for the company’s own preparers and software not only drew backlash from both the National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) last week but also resulted in the company eventually pulling the ad.
The ad was perceived by these organizations as diminishing the value of professional tax preparers — a group TurboTax has become a large employer of. The campaign emphasized TurboTax’s convenience and cost-saving benefits and promised users at least a 10% reduction in expenses compared to their existing tax preparation services through the idea of “breaking up” with their current preparer in favor of TurboTax.
Despite the ad’s pull nearly a week ago, the NATP is still upholding a suspension on all advertising, sponsorship and exhibiting spending with Intuit. Shortly after the ad was pulled, the AICPA piled on the NATP’s complaints and filed its own statement regarding the campaign.
“Intuit’s decision to halt the ad is a positive step. We appreciate that in our conversations, Intuit reemphasized its commitment to the CPA community and recognized the importance of growing that talent pipeline,” said AICPA president and CEO Barry Melancon. “AICPA members interact with Intuit in numerous capacities, and this decision is recognition of how important that interaction is to Intuit.”
“As the CPA profession continues to progress and expand with ever-changing technology, laws and consumer expectations, the AICPA will support the tax practitioner and CPA community in the work of providing expert analysis, insights and financial planning services to millions of Americans,” said Melancon.
While some argue the industry’s shortcomings around work-life balance, culture and compensation have deterred today’s young professionals from the discipline entirely, the response and decision to pull the ad campaign continue to drive the tense narrative between the accounting industry’s labor force, their employers and the developing technology within their work.
The undetermined value of tax preparers
Blake Oliver, host of The Accounting Podcast, highlighted the ad campaign’s message on a recent episode and said although the pay to work for Intuit as a TurboTax expert is less than an individual preparer or accountant could make elsewhere, the flexibility and benefits offered by Intuit are likely a major contributor to a shift towards their push for market share takeover — thus casting some blame on the accounting industry’s ability to adjust work processes and culture to retain talent.
“Maybe it’s that there’s enough accounting firms that don’t offer flexibility [so] people are willing to go work at Intuit as TurboTax experts,” said Oliver.
His insights on price discrepancies and marketing value highlight the ambiguous factors on which a tax preparer’s value is determined. “What really shocks me about the whole tax preparation industry is the fees people can charge are so low and so high, there’s such a huge spread,” Oliver said.
“You see guys like Logan Graf on Twitter, talking about how [though] he’s had his firm less than five years now, he’s a young guy, and he can charge at least $1,000 a return. And then, you have average fees reported by NATP of like $200-$300 for a 1040 with a Schedule C, and I am thinking to myself, are these tax pros just not good at selling and marketing and understanding their value?”
Intuit CFO’s recent comments on technology and accounting’s development
While Intuit CFO Sandeep Aujla noted “accounting is no longer accounting” in a recent Q&A, he added accountants can provide value in a growing technology space by developing their acumen of the business they’re in through the lens of a strategic partner. “There’s a flywheel of success that can happen for people in this industry, but changing the perception that accounting is bookkeeping is the first step to getting great talent into the field.”
Aujla highlighted extensively how technology has helped improve efficiencies within Intuit’s finance function, particularly on the FP&A side of things. “We have dashboards that track the business daily and weekly, but the teams were forecasting on a quarterly basis. Then they moved to a monthly forecast, and eventually, they were spending more time on daily and weekly forecasts.
“So I thought, wait, I’m sure the machine can do that. We’ve found that technology has done a much better job. It knows when the Super Bowl is, what day of the week the Fourth of July falls on, and how that impacts payment volumes and flow. This has freed up hours for our FP&A team,” he said.
