www.taxalmanac.org

Yesterday Professor Beyer ran this note about www.taxalmanac.org, a new website for tax professionals created by the software maker Intuit (they are the TurboTax people).  By coincidence, I received a phone call from someone at Intuit yesterday afternoon, asking if I wanted to help build the website by supplying articles.  As Professor Beyer points out, the website is meant to be a "wiki-based" information tool -- if I understand correctly, anyone registered at taxalmanac.org will be able to edit any article on the site.

I told the Intuit representative that I would think about it, but it's fairly unlikely that I will participate. 

First there's the issue of free content.  Intuit (from this) appears to be a fairly profitable company, with net income over $300 million per year in each of the past three years. I, on the other hand, do not have net income over $300 million per year (I know -- shocking, isn't it?).  Intuit hasn't created this website out of the goodness of their hearts -- they think it will lead to even more income for them.  That's great (viva capitalism), but why would I want to help Intuit build their business for free?

I'm sure Intuit would tell me that the quid pro quo is my articles in exchange for the wealth of information I can find at taxalmanac.org.  And, indeed, there are some good aspects to the site -- it offers up-to-date versions of the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations.   However, I'm simply not sure about the quality of the other information offered on the site, mostly because of its nature.  I know that people such as Jeff Jarvis like the idea of wikis, and think that they can serve to democratize the internet.  However, when I use the internet for law-related research, my one and only goal is accuracy.  My understanding is that the articles at taxalmanac.org are both posted and edited anonymously, which means (a) I don't know the credentials of the person who originally posted an article, and (b) I don't know the credentials of the person or people who edited the article.  If that's the case, then how can I rely upon the information in any of the articles I find at the site?

Comments

[Michael Sapper, CPA]

Dear Mr Schoenmeyer,

Interesting comments about the wiki you mentioned above. A few months ago I started a wiki for all things related to practicing as a Certified Public Accountant. (http://www.wikicpa.com). I too am concerned about the potential quality of the articles that will get written and posted to our site. One item we have designed into our site is the concept of the “copyright protected’ article. In essence a wiki post that is protected from edit in lieu of the typical wiki post that can be edited by anyone. (http://www.wikicpa.com/index.php/Wikicpa:RetainCopyrights ) Understanding that their writing will be protected from edit, we feel that CPAs and other professionals such as you will feel more confident in contributing to this project. There really is no downside to making this type of a knowledge contribution this endeavor.