CPA Practice Advisor

APR 2016

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.

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20 April 2016 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com PROFESSIONAL TAX PREPARATION SYSTEMS Reviews 2016 Reviews of Professional Tax Compliance Systems By Isaac M. O'Bannon T ax professionals face a unique challenge not faced by any other profession. Each year, a handful of people who know less about taxes get together to decide on whether to totally rewrite the rules on how tax professionals do their jobs. Yes, we're talking about Congress and the president. Tis year, however, instead of adding a few thousand pages of tax code, creating new taxes for mil- lions of Americans, or adding a few band-aids to the system, they actually applied a litle common sense. Regardless of your personal and professional feelings toward the IRS and the tax code, most income tax professionals probably gave a litle sigh of relief when Congress passed the PATH Act (Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes). Tat's because, again regardless of what you think of the name of the law, or the job performance of either Congress or the president, the PATH Act fnally made more than 20 "tax extenders" permanent, instead of just slapping on temporary one year extensions to these tax credits and deductions. (Read more about what the PATH Act did at www. cpapracticeadvisor.com/12151947 .) All of these changes aside, tax professionals simply can't know every detail of the U.S. Tax Code, so they rely on tax compliance systems that ofer not only the tools and resources to prepare hundreds or more returns for their clients, but also have research options that help them stay on top of these tax changes. Advanced Workfow Systems • Intuit - Lacerte Tax • Tomson Reuters - GoSystem Tax RS • Tomson Reuters - UltraTax CS • Wolters K luwer - CCH A xcess Tax • Wolters K luwer - CCH ProSystem fx Tax For our reviews of tax preparation systems, we divide products into two categories: Advanced Workfow and Traditional Workfow. In general, smaller frms would be best served using a "traditional workfow" system, which are designed for more typical workfow pro- cesses. Te "advanced workfow" systems are generally for frms with more complex workfow processes, such as the need for several tax specialists or departments to work on a single complex return, frms with multiple locations, or those with clients who have inter-related or multi-tiered partnerships. Traditional Workfow Systems • CCH SFS - ATX • CCH SFS - TaxWise • Drake Sofware - Drake Tax • Intuit ProSeries Tax • Intuit Tax Online • Tax Act Professional Related Products: • BNA Form 706 Preparer & Form 709 Preparer Follow the links above to see how each professional tax system fared in this year's review. CORE PRODUCT FUNCTIONS INTEGRATION OPTIONS PAPERLESS WORKFLOW REMOTE CAPABILITIES HELP/ SUPPORT OVERALL RATING Intuit Lacerte Tax Thomson Reuters GoSystem Tax RS Thomson Reuters UltraTax CS Wolters Kluwer Axcess Tax Wolters Kluwer ProSystem fx Tax CORE PRODUCT FUNCTIONS INTEGRATION OPTIONS PAPERLESS WORKFLOW REMOTE CAPABILITIES HELP/ SUPPORT OVERALL RATING CCH SFS ATX CCH SFS TaxWise Drake Software - Drake Tax Intuit - Intuit Tax Online Intuit - ProSeries TaxAct Professional ADVANCED WORKFLOW TRADITIONAL WORKFLOW

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