LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. -- Conventional wisdom has it that the Internet is a great place for tax practitioners to obtain information. But Dr. Alan Sumutka, associate professor of accounting at Rider University, says usefulness of the Internet is overhyped for the tax practitioner.

Practitioners just won't find the authoritative sources they seek. However, there is a lot of useful information on the Internet for average citizens.

These are the findings that Dr. Sumutka and Tai C. Chang of Cranbury and Cynthia Kenney of Burlington, both candidates in Rider's master of accountancy program, wrote in an article, "Is The Internet Overhyped as Useful Source for Tax Practitioners?," that appeared in the February 1997 issue of Taxation for Accountants and in the March/April 1997 issue of Taxation for Lawyers.

Dr. Sumutka said, "If the practitioner is looking for an authoritative source in taxation such as finding the Internal Revenue Code, IRS Regulations, IRS rulings, or court cases, you can't find current or complete law on the Internet."

The reason, he said, is that publishing houses put this information in print and charge for the services. They keep this service up-to-date. What is on the Internet is not offered for free by publishing companies. As noted in the article, "Why would an individual or non-governmental organization be willing to put the Internal Revenue

Code or any authoritative tax information on the Web and update it gratuitously when publishing companies have long charged for such a service?" And the answer to the rhetorical question, "They would not."

In addition, the Internal Revenue Code is updated only through 1994. Again the question, who will keep it up-to-date for free?

What is most valuable is material being placed on the Internet by governmental sources. U.S. government (IRS), state government, and foreign governments offer excellent information. For the average citizen, the prerequisite is understanding the computer. The IRS has all its publications and tax forms on its site. To tax practitioner or average citizen, instead of writing and waiting 7-10 days to get documents, a person can download off the Internet in 30 minutes.

Dr. Sumutka said 48 of 50 states have tax information on the Net. It is easy to obtain information about what kind of tax different states have. If a person works in a different state, he or she can get information how those taxes would affect them. Another value of the Internet to the average citizen is there is a host of non-technical information available. As example, a person may know nothing about estate planning, but a simple search provides one background information and explanations.

The Internet, he said, is not of much use to do taxes, but rather to gain information.

"In the late summer, many authors were writing about how great the Internet was for tax practitioners," said Dr. Sumutka. He asked Chang and Kenney, who were taking his graduate-level seminar in taxation, to research the Internet to find out what was so great and how useful the information was. "They came back and said it was not so good," he added. "That is why we did the article. Frankly, we were shocked with the results."

For anyone seeking the most up-to-date taxation information, all that person has to do is access Dr. Sumutka's Web site on Rider's home page. It includes such useful tax sites as the federal government, the 48 state sites, and links to tax directories that are current to mid-December 1996.

A member of the accounting faculty for 20 years and a resident of Mercerville, NJ, Dr. Sumutka uses his Web site and the Internet as a way to teach his classes. Over the years, he has had almost 30 articles on taxation published.