When it comes to preparing their taxes, women today feel empowered to take control of this typically taxing task and don't spend too much time worrying about April 15. According to results from a recent survey conducted by MORE Magazine and Intuit Inc., maker of Quicken® TurboTax®, almost half of respondents (42 percent) said they do not find tax season stressful. For the more than half that do get anxious around tax time, 31 percent are concerned with organizing paperwork, 18 percent worry about owing money to the IRS, five percent worry about an audit and three percent feel the time crunch as they get closer to the filing deadline.
In addition, one-third of women polled said they have sole responsibility for managing the taxes in their household. Another 21 percent share the responsibility with their spouse and while 30 percent left the job to someone outside the house, such as an accountant, only 15 percent said their spouse did the job exclusively. Even those women who aren't the primary tax preparers in their household have some experience with doing taxes, with 69 percent having prepared their own taxes at one time or another.
"Not surprisingly, women's views and attitudes about taxes and personal finance have changed over the years. What's most exciting is that more and more women feel empowered to take control of their taxes, finding all the available resources to help them make tax time much less stressful," said Carol Campbell, publisher of MORE Magazine. "Our readers clearly find that taking control of their taxes is just one of the many ways they can plan for the future, save more money and get their financial house in order."
Some other findings from the survey:
- Women have clear opinions about how they want to see their tax dollars spent. When asked which programs they would most like to see their federal tax dollars spent on, the majority answered Social Security/Medicare (40 percent) and education (39 percent). In fact, about 41 percent of federal money is currently spent on Social Security/Medicare, but only 2 percent goes to education.
- Women are taking it upon themselves to put their tax dollars to work in ways that are important to them. An overwhelming 93 percent of MORE readers who were surveyed said they made a charitable donation in 2001. A full 75 percent said they will claim their charitable contributions as a deduction on this year's tax return.
- When asked how they intend to use their tax refund, exactly 20 percent of respondents said they had only one purpose in mind while 75 percent indicated that they would split up their refund across multiple needs with 67 percent saying that Savings will get some of the refund money and over half (57%) saying that they will pay bills.
The MORE Magazine/TurboTax survey was conducted by International Communications Research from January 3-6, 2002. The results are from 500 women subscribers of MORE Magazine between the ages of 40-55 across the country. For full results of survey, see the April 2002 issue of MORE Magazine.
About Quicken TurboTax
In its 18th tax season, TurboTax was the No.1-selling tax preparation software program in 2001, with 70 percent share of units sold at retail, and more than 80 percent retail revenue share, up eight points over 2000, according to NPD Intelect. Its Web-based counterpart, TurboTax for the Web, is the most popular site for online tax preparation and filing services. The Instant Data Entry feature is included at no additional charge in all 1040 versions of TurboTax. With more than 17 years of personal finance expertise, the TurboTax family of products saves time and money for more than 14 million Americans each year.
About Intuit Inc.
Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) is the leading provider of financial software and Web-based services for consumers, small businesses and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including Quicken®, QuickBooks®, Quicken TurboTax® and Quicken Loans® simplify personal finance, small business management and payroll processing, tax preparation and filing and home loans.
Founded in 1983, Intuit has annual revenue of more than $1 billion and reaches 25 million customers with nearly 6,000 employees in 13 states and four countries. More information can be found at www.intuit.com