Abstract This study investigates factors associated with the demand of households for tax preparer services. It extends previous research by taking a market segmentation approach that considers divergent taxpayer objectives and by incorporating several previously untested taxpayer demand factors. Approximately 70 percent of the taxpayers in our sample, when asked to Indicate their primary taxpaying objective in a fixed-answer format question, respond that they approach the taxpaying process with the primary objective of filing the most correct return. Twenty-five percent indicate minimizing their tax liability is their primary objective. Approximately half of each taxpayer objective group seeks: preparer assistance. However, the factors Influencing the decision to hire a practitioner differ by taxpayer objective. For those with the objective of filing the most correct return, the decision to employ a preparer is associated with the personality trait of value orthodoxy. These individuals are also characterized by low tax knowledge and high tax return complexity. Alternatively, the decision of taxpayers primarily concerned with tax minimization to employ a tax practitioner is associated with high income, low social responsibility, low tax knowledge, and increased age. Our results suggest that the demand for preparer services is not associated with fear of the IRS or motivated primarily by the desire to minimize effort.
Collins et al. (Sat,) studied this question.