Where you call home may have an impact on how you prepare your taxes, and not just because of the state tax code. Differences abound in the preferred method of preparing our taxes as we travel from one area of the country to another. In this post, we’ll call out the Designated Market Areas, or DMAs, that are the most likely to prepare their taxes using several common methods.
Nationally, just under a third of U.S. tax filers used a CPA, a private accountant or a notary public to prepare their taxes, but residents of the Boston DMA are 22% more likely than average to chose this method of preparing their taxes. Nearby, Hartford & New Haven in Connecticut and Portland, Maine also over index compared to the U.S. average for having a CPA, a private accountant or a notary public prepare their taxes.
While fewer than 10% of tax filers today still prepare their taxes the old-fashioned way using pencil and paper, residents of the Wilkes Barre-Scranton DMA in Pennsylvania are 35% more likely than average to still do their taxes manually. Other Northeastern markets, like Albany-Schenectady-Troy and Buffalo in New York and Providence-New Bedford, a market which covers Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts, are also still preparing their taxes the old-fashioned way at above average rates.
It’s no surprise that an increasing number of Americans are filing their taxes with the help of online tax software, like Turbo Tax, but residents of the Salt Lake City, Utah DMA are really out front when it comes to this trend. Residents there are 46% more likely than the average tax filer to prepare their taxes using an online software. While the tech-savvy DMAs of Seattle-Tacoma and Portland, Oregon are also ahead of the curve, so too are many Midwestern markets, including Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas, which, coincidentally, is where the H&R Block headquarters are located.
Read about more tax trends here or visit www.experian.com/simmons.