The secret to dealing with disasters with new tax software is keeping the prior year's product available. That has been the approach of Thomson Reuters which appears to have been unscathed by the kinds of tax software problems experienced this year by CCH's ATX, TRx, and TaxWorks, all of which had severe issues with their rewritten 2012 products. And that does not include Intuit, whose products had to be fixed in Minnesota, or H&R Block which had issues with health credits.That approach would have helped some ATX and TaxWorks users who were begging their suppliers to let them use the older version while the disasters with the new software were addressed. The problems with TRx Software Development were so severe that the Better Business Bureau lowered TRX's rating to an F and during February, the BBB of Middle Tennessee issued a statement headlined " TRX Software Development, Inc.=Tax Preparer's Nightmare".
Many complainers who used TaxWorks and TAX dropped their packages so they could continue operating and Thomson, with its UltraTax, and Drake Software appear to have benefited greatly. Fleszar anticipates the tax software buying season should be a busy one. "We think there is going to more professionals in the market than usual," he says.
