[PeteP]

Peter@Intuit, on 05 April 2011 - 11:58 AM, said:

Hi everyone,

Let's try and keep the posts friendly.

We should all appreciate that users of professional tax software will have different tax backgrounds, varying from novice to grizzled veterans. I remember being thrown into the "tax pool" as an articling student to get my tax hours, and I certainly did not have any formal tax training. Opening up the Income Tax Act was a daunting task, and I did not know all the different sources of information available to me.

Fortunately, I had a few other students in a similar boat, so we would collaborate with each other when we had to deal with things trickier than inputting a T5 slip. We got better and more confident as time went on, but we were still rookie tax preparers, as opposed to a "professional tax preparer". Our Tax Manager, who would review our work, ensured that we didn't release error riddled returns.

This forum is merely another collaboration tool, for both novice and experience tax users of Profile. There is no obligation to respond to "easy" questions, but please do not make people bad for asking them. No one was blessed with their extensive tax knowledge overnight.

In terms of having a forum just dedicated to veteran tax professionals, I know we have a "private forum" (which I believe was created to prevent google snooping of tax discussions). Would that forum suffice? If not, perhaps you can explain it a bit further and how you would like to have it run? If there is a big demand for this, I can bring it to the attention of the person that makes those decisions.

Thanks,
Peter

LOL!!!
ROFL!!!!

http://community.int..._1&#entry237573


http://community.int..._1&#entry238252

cheers
ROFL!!!!

[Dink Meeker]

I think everyone will agree with you Peter, but the top of the page still says Profile Premier Tax Software Discussion. The OP is obviously a DIY'er trying to glean some free advice from the public library of tax preparation. You can't be surprised that people who studied and now make a living from taxation would take offense to this. Tim's reply was instructional and polite. The OP is only having a tantrum because nobody will step up, hold his hand and walk him through his return. Instead of banning informed members such as Bert and Joe, maybe you should be considering expelling those that have obviously never spent a dime on your software.

[Jim]

Well said!

[JohnV]

Peter, your offer is too little too late.


The general issue, and one that Intuit wants to have disappear, is that they position their DIY products as easy to use. Their position is that anyone, even those with no accounting or tax background, can keep a set of books and do a tax return.


When professionals tell the DIY crowd to seek appropriate professional advice, it is because they recognize the person is in over their heads, and to give them an answer is not a good idea because the question betrays the understanding of the person asking. Their one basic question often raises many more, and when the person comes to ask a very very basic question while purporting to being doing work for clients, well, no amount of talking will convince me they are qualified in any way to prepare returns on their own, for money, and unsupervised.


But of course the DIYer and others get their backs up, because "how dare you tell me to see a professional. I want to do it myself, and Intuit says I can, and they sold me a piece of software they claim will do it."


And because Intuit needs the DIY crowd, they decide to shoot the messenger for provoking a flame war and\or having a bad attitude.


This is why I don't post here anymore. Well that and because there's a far better place to be.


Maybe Intuit should take the responsibility to more closely monitor this place, and move people, like Beckz, who, as a business owner, wants to know about maternity leave. She's obviously in the wrong place, and should be directed elsewhere.

[Reg]

Peter@Intuit, on 05 April 2011 - 08:58 AM, said:

I remember being thrown into the "tax pool" as an articling student to get my tax hours, and I certainly did not have any formal tax training. Opening up the Income Tax Act was a daunting task, and I did not know all the different sources of information available to me.

....Our Tax Manager, who would review our work, ensured that we didn't release error riddled returns.

Peter:
You have hit the nail right on the head here. Take a read over what you wrote. You were supervised as a student. I am willing to bet that all of us who are flaming the "professionals" who ask tax 101 questions, were as well.

If people are hanging out their shingles as "tax professionals" they should have more knowledge than just how to use the program. They need to know taxation, they need to know how to do research, they need to be prepared to spend time and money improving and maintaining their professional skills, etc. etc.

Don't expect those of us who do keep our skills and knowledge current to encourage the "kitchen table professionals"

[BalancedBooks]

Peter:

My continued involvement will depend on your answer to the following questions.

Did "Andyetimhappy" get banned for his inappropriate language posted earlier in this thread?

Were there any kind of penalties imposed on him other than "post deleted by moderator"?

I feel we have a right to know what Intuit is doing to ensure the integrity of these forums. We are already aware of a permanent ban imposed on one of the most senior and knowledgable memebers we had. Will this heavy handedness be imposed to other abusers such as Andyetimhappy?

Dan

[Peter@Intuit]

Thanks for your comments.

It's not the intention of this forum to have non-Profile users pop in and get tax advice from our veteran users, and then disappear without contributing. This is really intended to be a forum for Profile users to dialogue with each other, to both contribute and receive assistance.

If you are a new user to Profile, I would encourage you to introduce yourself, tell us about your practice, and ask questions only after you've tried to do some research on the topic.

If you've been here for awhile, try to have patience with some of the questions asked. This isn't the place to solve whether a particular user is, or is not qualified (in your opinion) to prepare tax returns for a living. If it's obvious that the person asking the question has made no effort to research the question asked, you do not have to respond. We do want to have a positive environment, so I'd rather you ignore someone's posts rather than to attack their qualifications.

Some users enjoy teaching others and will provide some advice, while other users are more interested in discussing things that are at their level of expertise.

If these were fast moving forums and many threads were spammed with elementary questions, then I can see this being a big problem. As mentioned earlier, we do have the "private forums", which might serve as an area for the veteran members to have discussions. If there's another alternative you want to propose, please raise it.

@ Dan

Dan, I'm not the "forum police"... I'm just a senior tax analyst with our development team, trying to help out on the forums when I have some free time. Please send a PM to AnnemarieB@Intuit if you have specific questions on moderation.

Thanks,
Peter

[Tim Parris]

Peter@Intuit, on 06 April 2011 - 11:14 AM, said:

Dan, I'm not the "forum police"... I'm just a senior tax analyst with our development team, trying to help out on the forums when I have some free time. Please send a PM to AnnemarieB@Intuit if you have specific questions on moderation.

I was under the impression that AnnemarieB works for Intuit India, not Intuit Canada. Her name pops up more on the India website than on the Canadian website as well as Intuit India's YouTube Channel.