Tax software acceptance: how do professional users differ from novices?

This paper explores how performance expectations, anticipated learning curve, social influences, privacy concerns, and risk perceptions affect taxpayers’ intention to use tax preparation software. We contribute to the extensive technology acceptance literature in three ways. First, we investigate whether perception and acceptance of tax software is different for professional accountants (‘experts’) compared to the general public (‘novices’). Second, we assess the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model in the novel context of individual tax preparation and confirm the theory’s ability to explain technology use outside the ‘traditional’ environment of business organisations. Third, we include constructs related to privacy and risk and test this extension of the technology acceptance model. Results indicate dissimilarities between the two subject groups and suggest the technology acceptance model may not be equally applicable to experts and novices.