INTUIT'S PAY IS LESS THAN DIRECT TRAVEL, WEB AND BOOKKEEPING EXPENSES.
THAT MEANS THEY CERTAINLY DO NOT PAY ENOUGH TO BRIBE ME!
Quickbooks Advisory Council: In 2002 Intuit paid me $500 to be on this Council. By 2/28/03 it paid $200 more, with $700 expected in 2003. It also paid some travel expenses, but the total paid did not come close to covering my total actual expenses for 7 days of travel.
QuickBooks Affiliate Program: I maintain this link in an effort to get clients. QB2002 and QB2003 sales through it were more than $16,000 a year at discounted prices. Intuit rebates a 6% commissions to Affiliates (about $1,000 a year). I rebated the entire 2002 commission to purchasers. I will rebate 5% of the 6% to them in 2003, except that clients get the entire 6%. This will leave me with about $200, which will not cover my out-of-pocket extra web and bookkeeping costs related to this.
Newsgroup and forum posts:
Intuit does not pay for these or anything not disclosed above.
CPA Fiduciary Duty: CPAs have such a duty to clients. They must use their best judgment in deciding what is in the best interest of clients. We may not let vendors bribe us to use client products we do not believe is in the best interest of clients.
Tax Evasion: My bookkeeper and I record every dollar received. We would not risk tax evasion charges over Intuit's small amount of money.
The challenge: Intuit is only paying me as disclosed above. I sincerely believe my statements about TurboTax and otherwise. Anyone who doubts this can retain a CPA to examine my books. They also can have me take a lie detector test. In both cases I will pay the cost if I do not tell the full truth.