My Daughter Went to a TurboTax Store and Here’s What Happened

Intuit recently opened the doors to its first-ever TurboTax-branded retail store in Manhattan. The move immediately raised questions across the accounting profession: What experience is Intuit trying to create? Who is it really for? And how might this kind of physical retail presence change taxpayer expectations?

Rather than speculate, I decided to test it.

My daughter is a freshman at NYU and has never prepared her own tax return. I asked Karis to walk into the TurboTax store with no existing TurboTax account, no coaching from me, and no working knowledge of tax preparation. Her only instruction was simple: be a normal first-time filer who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

What follows is a Q&A from my interview with Karis after her visit. The goal wasn’t to evaluate technical tax accuracy, but to understand the experience, - especially for someone who feels anxious and unsure about the whole process.

Editorial Note: I did not lead my daughter with her answers or coach her in any way. In fact, until I conducted the interview, I had no idea if her experience at the TurboTax store was positive or negative. The interview segment of this article is independent of any editorial bias, and Intuit had no influence or advanced notice or input related to my daughter’s experience at the store or with the publication of this article. Intuit is not a sponsor of The Woodard Report.

The interview

Joe Woodard: Talk me through what happened from the moment you walked into the TurboTax store.

Karis Woodard: Basically, I walked in, and there were probably five or six people standing around with iPads. There was a clearly identifiable front desk, so I went up and said, “I’m here to file my tax return.” They immediately walked me over to a couch and asked a few questions: my email, phone number, whether I had my W-2. I didn’t have an appointment, but they said, “No worries. It will just take a few minutes to get someone assigned to you.”

While I waited, they invited me to enjoy the snack and coffee area: espresso, cappuccino, popcorn, and water. It was very welcoming.

Joe: What was your first impression of the space itself?

Karis: It was huge - way bigger than it looks from outside. Very open, modern, lots of windows, lots of seating, and lots of TurboTax branding. It didn’t feel cramped at all. I felt comfortable almost immediately.

Joe: How long did you wait before meeting with someone?

Karis: About ten minutes. Then a tax expert named Mildred came and brought me to a semi-private service area, not fully enclosed but still felt private.

Joe: How long did you wait before meeting with someone?

Karis: About ten minutes. Then a tax expert named Mildred came and brought me to a semi-private service area, not fully enclosed but still felt private.

Joe: What service options did they explain to you?

Karis: They explained three options:

• Full service: Upload your documents, answer some questions, and they do everything for you.
• Assisted service: You do the return, and they coach you through it.
• Self-service: You do everything yourself.

I chose full service.

Joe: Did they push you toward that option?

Karis: No, not at all. That was completely my choice.

Joe: What did the full-service process look like?

Karis: First, they walked me through installing the TurboTax app and setting up an account. Then, I uploaded three documents directly into TurboTax using my app: my ID, my W-2, and last year’s return. Then Mildred asked me a few questions, nothing overwhelming. Honestly, I mostly sat there watching YouTube while answering questions along the way.

It took maybe 30 minutes total. I could get up, use the bathroom, and grab snacks. It never felt rushed.

Joe: Let’s talk price. What did it cost?

Karis: Full service was $150, and you can pay it out of your refund if you want. I paid with a card.

Joe: How did the experience wrap up?

Karis: Mildred explained when my e-file would be accepted (two to three days) and how I’d get my refund. She had walked me through connecting my bank account to the TurboTax app, so she explained that the refund would just post to my account. What stood out most is that my TurboTax profile is linked directly to her. If I have questions later, I can chat with her specifically.

On the way out, the staff reminded me I could take snacks or coffee to go. Everyone was incredibly friendly.

Joe: On a scale of 1–10, how anxious were you about taxes when you walked in?

Karis: Probably a 7 or 8.

Joe: And when you walked out?

Karis: Like a 2 or 3. It was a very easy process.

My takeaways from the TurboTax store

After listening to Karis and reviewing the experience, a few takeaways stand out for accounting and bookkeeping professionals:

1. Intuit is primarily selling confidence, not compliance. The real product here isn’t tax prep, it’s anxiety reduction about the tax preparation process.

2. Hospitality matters. Coffee, snacks, comfort, and reassurance were as important as technical execution.

3. Human connection is central. The ability to reconnect with the same tax professional post-visit was key to my daughter’s experience.

4. Intuit is resetting expectations with retail tax offerings. Filers who can file through a retail offering may now expect tax help to feel more like an Apple Store than a set of generic cubicles with a waiting area.

5. The store addresses simple, straightforward taxes with quick resolutions and fast refund processing (when applicable). Our experiment didn’t address complex tax returns, but even if the store can accommodate this, I’m doubtful that Intuit’s ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is the same as most CPA firms and EA practices.

CPA firms and independent tax practices (e.g., EA firms), for the most part, would not find my daughter to be an ideal client. So, for most of these firms, Intuit’s TurboTax stores aren’t a threat. That said, my daughter’s experience has shown me that Intuit’s new storefronts are, nonetheless, a challenge for accounting professionals – a challenge to change the way clients feel about the tax process.

Raising the bar on tax client experience

In the past, tax practices have competed with TurboTax, Tax Slayer and other consumer-level offerings by focusing on more complex returns, as well as tax representation and advisory. While these will remain key differentiators for CPA firms and EA firms, Intuit has raised the bar on client experience. To meet this challenge, tax practices should:

1. Be intentional about the client experience, including user-friendly, intuitive (pun intended) technologies that fuse tax preparation with mobile-first applications.

2. Create welcoming and representative experiences for clients, even if, unlike Intuit’s TurboTax stores, those experiences are mostly virtual.

3. Understand that the ultimate “product” is not the tax return. The real product is the client’s reduction in anxiety and stress related to the tax compliance process within the context of a trusted, long-term, and meaningful client relationship.

If Intuit’s introduction of TurboTax stores is making the world strange for you, it should. Mobile-first technologies and AI in the hands of global, multi-billion-dollar corporations is just one of the many shifts impacting accounting and bookkeeping – just one of the ways the world of accountancy feels strange. That’s why the theme of this year’s Scaling New Heights® conference is “Strange New World,” where we will feature over 140 technology innovations and offer over 100 training sessions to equip you to offer your own modern, mobile-first client experiences with tax services and advisory services.