A test of the usefulness of surveys in identifying potential expert systems applications in tax planning

Abstract Before expert systems can be developed to assist in tax practice, hundreds of tasks must be analyzed to determine which are most appropriate for system development. The purpose of this research are to gain an understanding of the tax planning applications domain and to test the validity of using a questionnaire in task selection. The most critical subset of the planning tasks was analyzed concerning characteristics that would indicate expertise. A questionnaire was used to obtain feedback from firm tax partners about the appropriateness of the subset of planning tasks for expert system development. The data gave a preliminary indication that corporate alternative minimum tax planning was the most viable task. A panel of tax expert systems specialists concurred. Further study of the questionnaire use was recommended.