The renewals are out

[IRonMaN]

So I received an e-mail a little bit ago telling me that I can review my renewal quote.  So I'm curious, so I click on the link and I sign in and then a message comes up telling me that they are having trouble retrieving my Lacerte renewal quote.  I'm glad they are since I wasn't planning on using Lacerte next year. 😳

Anyway, I logged in without the link and I see they have bumped up the price but not by an astronomical amount.

[abctax55]

That's funny... except it isn't.   Sure doesn't go a long way towards instilling confidence in the Company now does it?

I love my Lacerte software for processing returns.  But it has been SO unstable & temperamental when downloading updates that it's become a problem.  I'm networked, with three 'seats'.  It can take a couple of hours to get updates loaded (mainly those Thursday afternoon ones, the big ones).   It was so bad I would rearrange the staffing schedule because of it.

And I'm will be evaluating other software before re-upping as the situation just isn't viable.  And I'm NOT  hosting candidate.... too many internet outages here in rural/resort Northern California.  Plus, Intuit shutting down the ability to work off-line this year was a real pisser.  

[IRonMaN]

A couple of hours for an update would drive me bonkers.  I'm patient, but not that patient.

[abctax55]

Some of it because of slow internet.... but I have the fastest I can get at my location (remember, rural, resort....just outside of 'downtown'.  

But the networked part seems to cause a lot of the problem too.

[Just-Lisa-Now-]

I get a Lacerte screen too. Then when I try to view my own quote, it tries to sell me that Hosted BS.

[IRonMaN]

Yup. 

[BobKamman]

Are you using land lines, or satellite?

[PATAX]

I think all of the tax software companies do that, i.e.  send out the invoices or bills for the next year's software. Tax season just ended April 18th, and for many of us it continues, yet they send the bills out already. I think I'm going to send my own billing invoices out to my annual clients for their 2023 tax returns right now.

[IRonMaN]

"I think I'm going to send my own billing invoices out to my annual clients for their 2023 tax returns right now."

Don't forget to add that PITA fee 😁

[The_AntiTax_Man]

Yearly Intuit stock recap:

On 04/26/22 closed at $421.31/share; on 04/25/23 closed at $419.83

Year low $353.31 on 05/18/22; Year high $489.23 on 08/15/22

No progress in the stock price either.

CEO: Sasan K. Goodarzi There is plentiful tech talent available for Intuit to snap up at a reasonable price currently.  Get that talent in-house to improve the software [and this web site] now, please.

[IRonMaN]

"at a reasonable price currently"

I think the interpretation is - we can get people cheap ------------------ not necessarily good people.

[The_AntiTax_Man]

@IRonMaN  I think with all of the recent tech company layoffs, it is more likely that not that Intuit could currently hire some talented people at a "reasonable" price.  A year ago this was not the case.

Tax Accountants are another story altogether.  There are not nearly enough millennials and Gen Zers coming into tax accounting to replace all of the soon to be departing baby boomers.  The Gen Xers are going to have to buckle up.  

And there will be NO help coming from Artificial Intelligence {AI} in tax prep arena EVER, because tax returns make absolutely no sense what-so-ever.  AI would go insane trying to complete a tax return.

[BobKamman]

30 years ago I would observe at tax seminars, with hundreds of preparers in the room, that I was one of the few with a full head of hair that was not gray, white or dyed.  Thanks to my genes, I can still claim that (except for around the edges). I wonder, also, who is going to join the next generation of tax practitioners.  I hope they have been warned that about a third of the tax season has been chopped off.  When broker 1099's don't come out until February 15 and most people want to file by April 15, we have two months to do what used to be accomplished in three.  And, with more forms and more data entry required each year.

[PATAX]

@BobKamman you hit the nail on the head. Long before covid I noticed the number of people at seminars would decrease each year. Some seminars had less than half of the people that they used to have years ago. Now since covid many of those seminars have not come back. I don't think anyone is lining up to do what we do.

[IRonMaN]

I like my job, but I really wouldn't encourage anyone coming out of school to go into this profession.

[PATAX]

@IRonMaN I'm about ready to quit.

[IRonMaN]

You can't quit, you have quite a few more years to go in order to catch up to Captain Fireball.

[The_AntiTax_Man]

So, I found this in my In-box this afternoon:

We recognize you may have experienced an issue in accessing your renewal quote for tax year 2023, and we apologize for that.  As a valued ProSeries customer, we understand how important it is to be able to access your account and preview your renewal quote. We have resolved the issue you may have faced, and are actively monitoring the situation. Please use the this link to preview your tax year 2023 ProSeries quote: As always, if you need any assistance, please call us at 800-934-1040. Thank you, Your ProSeries team

[IRonMaN]

I just saw that a little while ago too. 😁

[The_AntiTax_Man]

intuit stock closed at $566.23 today, up 45.69% from a year ago.

Now, Intuit, please go hire some additional programmers to fix all of the things that need fixing in PS23!  I want a tax software program that works in the upcoming 2023 tax year filing season.

Thank you!

[IRonMaN]

Good luck with that!

[PATAX]

Iron Man Is Right. Your avatar is a blue moon. The chances of what you want happening are less than the chance of a blue moon, which is about 40 times a century I believe. But it's good to be optimistic.

[IRonMaN]

But Intuit will eventually kill any optimistic outlook a person may have 😜

[abctax55]

@PATAX  - look what I found 😉

Contrary to the popular phrase "once in a blue moon", Blue Moons can occur relatively frequently, that is, in astronomical terms. 

Blue Moons occur once every two to three years, according to NASA. As there are roughly 29.5 days between full moons, February will never experience a monthly Blue Moon as it only has 28 days in a common year and 29 in a leap year. Sometimes February doesn't have a Full Moon at all, this is known as a Black Moon, according to Time and Date.

[IRonMaN]

This sounds a lot like a Bob post.  But of course he would have added that he became aware of those facts while doing some work for NASA😉

[PATAX]

@abctax55👍 good job finding that.

[Jim-from-Ohio]

the stock has been strong!  looking it to pass the all time high of over $ 700 I hope in the near future. then maybe do a 2 for 1 stock split.

[IRonMaN]

So you are saying we can all be expecting a refund to be coming our way?🤔

[abctax55]

Dan - YVW.  I knew it wasn't centuries 😉 but couldn't remember the specifics.  Gotta love google.

[Jim-from-Ohio]

Market up big time on news of fed's comments to cut interest rates three times in 2024.  Intuit (INTU) just passed $ 600.00 a share

[IRonMaN]

Look for bigger software price increases next year so they can drive that value higher.  Stock value is number one at Intuit ----------------------- customer satisfaction is number 1,861,752 on their list of priorities.

[BobKamman]

---

@Jim-from-Ohio wrote:

Market up big time on news of fed's comments to cut interest rates three times in 2024.  Intuit (INTU) just passed $ 600.00 a share

---

It's all Biden's fault

[PATAX]

@Jim-from-Ohio @IRonMaN @BobKamman You know what the old saying is, what goes up must come down. If the IRS direct e-file program takes off, then Intuit stock may drop faster than Godzilla's Turrrdo(tax) in the Sea of Japan. 😉

[The_AntiTax_Man]

@PATAX  if TurboTax falters as an income stream would Intuit focus more resources on making ProSeries improvements?  If so, at what cost to the licensees? 

Turbo Tax seems to be a huge distraction from needed improvements in ProSeries. 

I have a client that knows absolutely nothing about tax prep that hires on at Intuit each fall through April to train and then to work from home answering Turbo tax users calls.  It could not be a good experience for the caller in solving any problem they are working through.  Have a nice day!   

[PATAX]

🎼Ohhhhh no they say he's got to go, go go turrrrdo, oh yeahhh; Ohhhh no there goes Tokyo,  go go Godzilla.🎼😉

[IRonMaN]

"I have a client that knows absolutely nothing about tax prep that hires on at Intuit each fall through April to train and then to work from home answering Turbo tax users calls."

That has got me thinking.  I wonder if I could get Scout a job doing that.  He's a pretty smart dog and could handle the questions just as good as the neighbor does.  Now if I could just get him to speak a little clearer, I think I could make this work. 🐕

[PATAX]

@IRonMaN it's a proven fact that some of the smarter dogs could indeed speak, but their vocal cords and mouth structure prevents that.

[IRonMaN]

"but their vocal cords and mouth structure prevents that"

I wish some people that I know had the same issue 😯

[TaxGuyBill]

---

@The_AntiTax_Man wrote:

Turbo Tax seems to be a huge distraction from needed improvements in ProSeries. 

I have a client that knows absolutely nothing about tax prep that hires on at Intuit

---

Right now, Intuit views it the other way around - ProSeries is a distraction from them ripping off more Turdo-Taxers.

Although not ideal, they need employees to help customers navigate the program, deal with purchases or refunds, and deal with other non-tax issues.  For that matter, is has been obvious that some/many of the program developers know little to nothing about tax preparation (they deal with the programming aspect, not the tax-related laws).

[IRonMaN]

Careful Bill, or you may get a moderator e-mail like mine:

We expect you to obey the law and follow certain rules in using the Platform. Intuit does not condone or support any activity that is illegal, violates the rights of others, harms or damages Intuit's reputation, or could cause Intuit to be liable to a third party:

At minimum, you may not use the Platform to: Post, generate, or share Content that is or may be illegal or inappropriate, including material that may be defamatory, obscene, harassing, offensive, fraudulent, objectionable, false or misleading or infringing.

Of course, if you end up with a trial by jury and some of the users here are allowed to be members of the jury, you will walk out a free man after 15 seconds of jury deliberations 😀

[TaxGuyBill]

I don't see my comment falling under any of that.  And they already have that "reputation", so there isn't anything to harm or damage.  😁

[IRonMaN]

That's why I said the jury wouldn't deliberate long😀

[BobKamman]

---

@PATAX wrote:

@Jim-from-Ohio @IRonMaN @BobKamman You know what the old saying is, what goes up must come down. If the IRS direct e-file program takes off, then Intuit stock may drop faster than Godzilla's Turrrdo(tax) in the Sea of Japan. 😉

---

Meanwhile, HRB is up 33% since the first of the year.  Investors don't seem to be too worried about IRS Direct.  

[PATAX]

@BobKamman maybe Godzilla's turrrrdo is not sinking as fast as I thought it would. Could it be that he ate a lot of seaweed, which is giving buoyancy to his turrrrdo? I don't know, I'm just asking.🦖🥔😉

[Jim-from-Ohio]

I'm not trying to be a schill for Intuit.. just saw an opporutunity I thought was good. been a ProSeries customer for 1040s since 1997.. was using ATX for my business returns. there was one year that saw a lot of people being unhappy with ATX.. I think it was 2012 and Intuit reached out to ATX customers with a good deal to get them to switch to ProSeries.

I moved my business returns to ProSeries during that time so now all my returns are in ProSeries.  I saw the stock as a potential winner and it has been my best holding.. closed today at $ 611.69, up 56.16% year to date and getting closer to hitting the all time high of just a bit over $ 700.00 a share.  

I was not a fan of Intuit buying Credit Karma and Mail Chimp but I have to trust that Sasan Goodarzi, CEO of Intuit knows what he was doing. The prior CEO, Brad Smith did a great job I thought. I know the program could use some improvement and some improvements in tech support would be nice.  I am not blind to that..just trying to ride both sides, as a customer and a shareholder. 

[IRonMaN]

"I was not a fan of Intuit buying Credit Karma and Mail Chimp"

I'm not a fan of Intuit period, so I would never buy their stock.  To me, it's like buying stock in sure hit Russian tank manufacturing business.  I might make money out of the deal, but it just wouldn't feel right.

[Jim-from-Ohio]

I understand the company itself, Intuit, brings strong opinions on both sides.  I look at it like investing in oil stocks to a degree..  when the price of oil was surging my oil stocks did very well.  Intuit owns the do it yourself tax market and ProSeries is the number one used professional tax software used. 

Today the market is looking to gain on the strength shown yesterday where the Dow hit all time high.. The market likes planned interest rate cuts.  This should be good for bonds also as interest rates fall, generally speaking, bonds go up in value. 

[PATAX]

Another old saying is: The rising tide raises All Ships. The law of supply and demand is at work here. There is always a steady stream of money coming into the United States markets because it is the safest place in the world to invest. Take a look at all of the conflicts and Wars all across the world, and potential conflicts. Many of the people living in those areas invest in the US markets. At the same time the supply side has been reduced over the last 40 or so years because of mergers and consolidations, I.E. there are less American based companies to invest in.

[IRonMaN]

Kinda funny how some of our discussions are deemed not to be relevant but yet I have never seen a discussion about Intuit stock prices going up to ever being deemed not relevant to tax how tax software works🤔