20% of Adults Use Software, Internet Services to Prepare Their Income Tax Returns

20% of Adults Use Software, Internet Services to Prepare Their Income Tax
Returns

-- Majority of Federal Tax Filers Use Professional Help --

NEW YORK, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the widespread availability of
software and Internet services that assist in the preparation of income tax
returns, just under 20% of U.S. adults who file Federal tax returns avail
themselves of such applications, according to the latest data from Mediamark
Research & Intelligence.

Fully 50% of adults report that they use professional help -- such as on-site
specialists like H&R Block, a CPA or a tax professional -- in preparing their
returns. Moreover, a mere 13% prepare their personal Federal returns in the
simplest way: personally and manually.

TAX PREPARATION
---------------
Consumer Profile
----------------
Q: Which of the following best describes
how your personal federal income taxes
were prepared in the last 12 months?
------------------------------------------
% More or Less Likely
Than Adults Who Report
They Prepared Federal
Tax Returns to be...
------------------------
% Who
Prepare
Taxes
the
Following Gen Pre- HHI >
Way Men Women X'ers Boomers Boomers $100k
--------- --- ----- ----- ------- ------- -----
Personally
and
Manually 13.2% +17% -16% -10% -05% -03% -15%
---------- ---- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Personally,
using a
computer
software
program or
Online/
Internet
program or
service 19.9% +09% -08% +21% -02% -58% +26%
----------- ---- --- --- --- --- --- ---
With
Professional
Help: taxes
prepared
using an
on-site
specialist
such as
H & R Block,
a CPA or a
Tax
Professional 50.1% -03% +03% +02% +03% +11% +02%
------------- ---- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Base: Adults Aged 18+ Who Reported They Prepared Their
Federal Income Taxes in Any Way
------------------------------------------------------
Source: MRI Survey of the American Consumer, Fall 2008
------------------------------------------------------

Of those adults who file personal Federal taxes, the demographic known as
Generation X (born between 1965 and 1976) are 21% more likely to use a
computer or online/Internet tax preparation program or service. Moreover,
filers living in households with a greater than $100k annual income are 26%
more likely to use these tools for tax preparation.

At the other end of the age spectrum, Pre Boomers -- the age group born before
1946 -- are the most likely to use professional help; they are 11% more likely
than all U.S. adult tax filers to avail themselves of professional help in
preparing Federal tax returns.

"It's interesting that half of all adults who file personal federal taxes
feel the need to pay for professional assistance despite the wide availability
of software programs," said Anne Marie Kelly, SVP, Marketing and Strategic
Planning, MRI. "This probably speaks to the complexity of our tax code and the
anxiety many taxpayers feel about tackling the forms on their own."

About MRI...

Founded in 1979, MRI interviews approximately 26,000 U.S. adults in their
homes each year, asking about their use of media, their consumption of
products and their lifestyles and attitudes.

MRI is the country's leading provider of magazine audience and multimedia
research data. The company releases data from its Survey of the American
Consumer (adults 18+) twice yearly, in the spring and fall. MRI data have
become the basic media-planning currency for the majority of the media plans
that are created each year by national advertisers and their agencies. The
company's 26,000 in-home interviews each year represent the biggest survey of
its kind.

MRI Starch, a leader in providing marketing intelligence on print advertising
effectiveness, is a division of MRI.

MRI is part of GfK Group AG, Nuremberg, Germany. The GfK Group is the No. 4
market research organization worldwide. Its activities cover the three
business sectors of Custom Research, Retail and Technology and Media. The
Group has 115 companies covering more than 100 countries. Of a total of
approximately 10,000 employees, more than 80% are based outside Germany.

For more information, please visit http://www.mediamark.com/.

SOURCE Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI)

Anne Marie Kelly, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Strategic Planning,
MRI: +1-212-884-9204, annemarie.kelly@mediamark.com; Steve Ellwanger, Press
Counsel Group: +1-203-856-8303, steve@presscounselonline.com