Finding efficient tax research solutions is a never-ending challenge for accounting professionals.
But innovative platforms like Checkpoint and CCH AnswerConnect are leveraging automation and AI to redefine industry standards - boosting productivity and unlocking new levels of accuracy.
In this post, we'll compare the capabilities of leading tax research tools, analyzing how they harness technology to streamline workflows. You'll discover the solutions that are setting new benchmarks for efficiency, specialization, and collaboration.
The Evolution of Tax Research Solutions
The Manual Days: Print Publications and Basic Search
In the early days of tax research, accounting professionals relied on printed publications released by tax authorities and third parties. These often included Internal Revenue Code regulations, annotated statutes, explanatory memorandums, private letter rulings, and more. Researchers would manually flip through thousands of pages searching for relevant information by rudimentary keyword or index look-up. This tedious and time-consuming process meant even simple questions could take hours or days to answer accurately. Mistakes were common without robust tools to validate findings across sources. The lack of automation and intelligent search assistance added unnecessary friction for tax and accounting teams.
The Dawn of Digital Tools
As software advanced, tax research solutions gradually digitized access to many key tax publications and resources. This removed some physical barriers, enabled keyword searches across documents, and made basic validations more convenient. However, systems were still not connected to live regulatory updates, lacked intelligent features to surface insights, and required very manual intervention to extract answers. Without automation, the core shortcomings of speed, accuracy, and efficiency remained largely unsolved. Most tools were designed primarily for use by a single accountant versus optimized for collaboration and transparency. So while early digital tools marked progress, truly redefining the tax research process would require more innovative thinking.
What is Bloomberg tax Research?
Bloomberg Tax Research is a leading tax research and analysis platform designed specifically for tax professionals. It offers comprehensive federal, state, and global tax content to support complex tax research needs.
Key features include:
- Access to extensive primary source material including statutes, regulations, cases, rulings, and treaties
- Powerful tools like Practice Aids, Citator 2.0 KeyCiting, and IntelliConnect to streamline research
- Real-time news, analysis and guidance on the latest tax policy and legislation
- Robust libraries spanning all tax disciplines - income, sales/use, payroll, trusts, estates, state taxes and more
With Bloomberg Tax Research, users can quickly find answers to tax questions, ensure compliance, uncover new planning strategies and make confident decisions - all through an intuitive platform designed around how tax practitioners work.
By leveraging Bloomberg's technological expertise combined with input from leading tax practitioners, Bloomberg Tax Research aims to enhance productivity for today's busy tax professional. It strives to provide comprehensive and authoritative content that cuts through complexity to enable users to provide better client advice.
With robust tools tailored to tax research workflows, Bloomberg Tax Research helps practitioners efficiently perform critical tax work - from confirming analysis to assessing planning opportunities and everything in between. Its combination of comprehensive primary law, respected analysis, productivity tools, and real-time updates aims to equip users with everything needed for thorough and defensible tax work.
What is CCH tax research?
CCH tax research is a powerful and user-friendly software tool to help tax professionals stay on top of the complex, ever-changing tax codes and regulations.
Developed by leading tax and accounting experts at Wolters Kluwer, CCH AnswerConnect provides comprehensive libraries of official source documents, analysis, insights, tools and guidance. This enables tax and accounting professionals to conduct efficient and accurate tax research.
Some key capabilities include:
- Access to the complete Internal Revenue Code and Treasury regulations
- Robust search functionality to quickly find answers
- Citations and links to primary source materials
- Current awareness updates on new tax laws and IRS guidance
- Practice guides, checklists, charts and other practice aids
- Built-in calculators for computations
By leveraging CCH AnswerConnect tax research software, accounting firms and professionals can enhance productivity, ensure compliance, and deliver value for their clients. The cutting-edge technology and depth of practical knowledge saves time and provides confidence in tax preparation.
What is the best tax research website?
Tax research tools are invaluable resources for tax professionals to stay up-to-date on the latest tax laws and regulations. When selecting the best tax research website, key factors to consider include breadth and depth of content, ease of use, integration capabilities, and access to expert guidance.
The leading options each have unique strengths catering to different needs:
- Checkpoint (Thomson Reuters) - The gold standard for comprehensive primary source content and tools to efficiently find answers. Integrates well with other Thomson Reuters tax software. Ideal for larger accounting firms.
- Bloomberg Law - Tax Practice Center - Provides real-time updates and expert analysis on tax law changes. Strong focus on practice tools and insights versus primary law. Better suited for practitioners versus preparers.
- Cheetah (Wolters Kluwer) - Competitively priced alternative with robust explanations and ProSystem fx Tax software integration. Popular among small- to mid-sized firms.
- Lexis Advance Tax - Leading competitor with vast primary and secondary source content. Offered at lower price points for solos and small firms.
- Westlaw - Tax Practice Area - Similar offering as LexisAdvance. Provides KeyCite citator service for validating case law.
- IRS Site - Free access to official tax forms, publications and guidance. Reliable source but lacks comprehensive explanatory materials of paid services.
The best tax research website aligns with your firm's size, focus area, integration needs and budget. Leveraging demos, trials and customer reviews can help inform the right choice. Partnering with research experts like Vintti also simplifies staying current.
What type of software is Thomson Reuters?
Thomson Reuters CS Professional Suite is business software designed specifically for tax and accounting professionals. It integrates tools and services to help manage all aspects of practice operations, from returns and audits to client collaboration and firm management.
Some of the key features of the Thomson Reuters tax solution include:
Tax Research and Guidance
Thomson Reuters Checkpoint provides access to the industry's most trusted tax research database. Professionals can quickly search statutes, regulations, cases, rulings, commentary, and more to find answers and advice. Checkpoint Tax Methodology also offers step-by-step guidance through complex tax situations.
Return Preparation and Filing
Both Lacerte and UltraTax offer individual and business return prep, e-file, bookkeeping, and other capabilities to improve accuracy and efficiency. Bulk importing, automated workflows, and batch processing help firms scale operations.
Audit and Workpaper Management
CS Audit Solutions centralize engagement files, workpapers, trial balances, and other documentation for efficient collaboration and reviews. Tools like Accounting CS also assist with compilation and record keeping.
By consolidating these key functionalities into a unified suite, Thomson Reuters enables firms to manage tax processes, collaborate across teams, standardize methodologies, and scale growth more easily. The software aims to provide comprehensive solutions tailored to tax and accounting specialists.
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Redefining Research with Checkpoint Tax Research Software
Cutting-edge tools like Checkpoint tax research now seamlessly integrate intelligent algorithms to surface insights, boosting productivity.
Harnessing AI to Enhance Discovery
AI capabilities in modern tax research software understand the context and patterns within the ever-evolving tax code. This allows the software to deliver intelligent recommendations and relevant results tailored to the specifics of your research in real-time.
For example, as you search for information on business deductions, Checkpoint may surface an insightful precedent from a past tax court case that could apply to your client's situation. The key benefit here is the software works proactively in the background to enhance your discovery process. You can find answers faster without having to sort through volumes of information that may not be relevant. This makes tax research much more effective.
Optimized for Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
Leading tools like Checkpoint promote collaboration by allowing teams to easily share folders, organize research, and exchange commentary or notes within projects. This captures valuable firm-specific insights over time.
Having a centralized database of archived client research makes training and onboarding smoother as well. New hires or interns can quickly get up to speed on past approaches used for certain client situations.
The collaborative features enhance knowledge sharing to boost productivity and quality firm-wide over the long term. Teams learn from past work rather than starting from scratch. And commentary trails capture important considerations that may have led to specific treatment to aid decision analysis for similar cases in future.
Lacerte Tax Research: Streamlining the Research Process
Lacerte Tax Research seamlessly integrates with Lacerte tax preparation software to provide accounting professionals with quick and easy access to authoritative tax research content. By surfacing relevant materials directly within the tax prep workflow, Lacerte enables users to efficiently find answers without ever leaving their work.
Effortless Integration with Tax Preparation
Lacerte Tax Research integrates deeply with Lacerte tax software to deliver a unified user experience. With a single sign-on, accountants can fluidly toggle between preparing returns and conducting research. Key integration features include:
- Direct access to primary source materials and analysis within Lacerte tax prep layouts. Users never have to disrupt their workflow by navigating across platforms.
- SmartLinks that automatically pull up relevant research based on the form and line item an accountant is working on. This saves significant time otherwise spent manually searching for materials.
- Real-time updating so that any changes to tax law are immediately reflected in Lacerte Tax Research. This prevents reliance on outdated information that could lead to errors.
- Collaborative annotations that enable firms to highlight key passages and add review notes to better train staff.
By embedding authoritative research content into the tax preparation process, Lacerte Tax Research allows firms to work smarter and maximize productivity.
User-Friendly Interface, Powerful Results
Although deeply integrated, Lacerte Tax Research maintains an intuitive, user-friendly interface designed specifically for tax professionals. Key features accounting firms love include:
- Natural language search that returns concise, relevant excerpts rather than full documents. This enables quick discovery of needed information.
- Filters to narrow results by document type, jurisdiction, keywords in excerpt, date, etc.
- Highlighting of search terms in excerpts to provide context.
- Memo Builder that compiles selected excerpts and annotations into a fully-formatted reference memo.
- Mobility through iOS and Android apps that provide access to materials on any device.
The simplicity of the interface belies the sophistication of the Wolters Kluwer tax research engine underneath. Smart automation and AI-driven tools help surface precise information from a vast research corpus. This empowers firms to conduct complex research efficiently.
By combining comprehensive primary law, analysis, explanations, and practitioner notes with groundbreaking technology, Lacerte Tax Research helps tax professionals streamline work, enhance compliance, and deliver excellent client service. The integration with Lacerte tax software eliminates friction from the process, enabling users to find answers at the moment of need quickly.
Elevating Accuracy with ProSystem fx Tax Software
ProSystem fx Tax provides accountants and tax professionals with precise research capabilities, ensuring compliance and accuracy in their work. As regulations and tax codes frequently change, having access to up-to-date, validated reference materials is critical for proper preparation and filing.
Precision in Tax Research and Compliance
ProSystem fx Tax integrates CCH® IntelliConnect®'s comprehensive online tax research system directly into the software. This gives professionals seamless access to a vast range of indispensable research content, including expert analysis, explanations, comparisons, and more.
IntelliConnect provides multiple research paths to quickly find answers to tax questions with confidence. Whether searching statutes, cases, rulings, explanations, or commentary, tax analysts can efficiently navigate complex issues to determine the appropriate application of the latest tax laws.
Having this detailed and definitive guidance available on-demand enables firms to:
- Accurately interpret IRS codes, courts decisions, regulations, and other sources
- Confirm the correct treatment of complex, unusual, or ambiguous tax situations
- Substantiate conclusions with reputable primary sources and expert analysis
- Avoid penalties, audits, and other risks from incorrect application of the latest tax codes
IntelliConnect further assists professionals in confirming calculations, determining credits and deductions, and identifying planning opportunities to create thorough and compliant tax returns.
With ProSystem fx Tax's seamless integration, professionals save time toggling between software systems and can efficiently determine precise solutions directly within the tax preparation process. This simplifies research, ensures accuracy, and allows professionals to focus on high-value strategic advisory.
The Competitive Edge of ProSystem fx Tax
The sophisticated integration of CCH® IntelliConnect® tax research empowers firms to surpass industry benchmarks in accuracy, efficiency, and compliance.
ProSystem fx Tax creates a streamlined workflow from research to return, enabling seamless confirmation of tax calculations and treatment directly within the preparation process. This eliminates toggling between separate software systems, spreadsheets, and websites to piece together answers.
The software provides professionals a user-friendly process to quickly access, apply, and substantiate definitive guidance at exactly the point of need. This prevents inaccurate assumptions, manual rework, and other inefficient practices that lead to mistakes.
Having integrated access to CCH IntelliConnect's authoritative primary sources, expert-validated content, and vast explanation materials also reduces outside research costs and platform fees. This allows firms to centralize more tax preparation functionality through a single, unified system.
With ProSystem fx Tax, professionals across all experience levels have an industry-leading research and compliance framework to confidently tackle complex returns. This amplifies a firm's collective accuracy, productivity, and advisory capabilities beyond typical piecemeal solutions.
As regulations intensify and tax codes grow increasingly intricate, ProSystem fx Tax enables firms to scale capacity, sharpen competitiveness, and deliver new levels of quality, efficiency, and insight.
Comparing Titans: CCH AnswerConnect vs Checkpoint
Feature-Rich Research with CCH AnswerConnect
CCH AnswerConnect provides a comprehensive library of up-to-date and authoritative tax research content to simplify the research process. With powerful tools like Smart Charts, Practice Guides, and The RIA Federal Tax Handbook built-in, AnswerConnect enables tax professionals to quickly find answers to complex tax questions.
The platform shines with its user-friendly interface that makes tax research efficient. Context-sensitive help features provide guidance when needed, without interrupting workflow. AnswerConnect's collaboration tools also facilitate real-time communication between accounting firm employees.
With robust secondary sources that analyze legislation and court cases, AnswerConnect delivers confidence in research outcomes. Through innovations like predictive data analytics, it aims to set the standard for intelligent tax research software.
Checkpoint: The Benchmark for Tax Research Efficiency
Regarded as an industry leader, Checkpoint stands out with its vast collection of primary law, analysis, guidance, tools, and learning resources conveniently accessible on one platform.
Checkpoint's powerful search engine gives professionals an efficient way to pinpoint specific information from its extensive research content. Its advanced filters and operators help define searches to target precise results. Recently added Checkpoint Search features like Query Builder also assist in constructing effective search queries.
Where Checkpoint excels is in its research process efficiency. Intuitive navigation, customizable layouts, and a unified research environment allow smooth access to the diverse set of content and resources professionals need daily. With innovations like AI-assisted tools that summarize regulations and highlight key details, Checkpoint aims to further simplify research by enhancing productivity.
With strengths in both research capabilities and usability, Checkpoint sets a high standard for modern tax research software. Its combination of robust content and efficiency makes Checkpoint a leader in the industry.
Key Takeaways on Modern Tax Research Advances
In summary, today's leading tools apply automation and AI to transform efficiency and expertise development across accounting teams handling tax work.
Dramatic Productivity Improvements Through Automation
New technology has automated the most tedious elements of the tax research process. For example, tax research software can now instantly pull relevant codes and regulations to support findings, rather than requiring accountants to manually search through dense regulatory documents.
Similarly, automation handles routine compliance checks and forms, freeing up professionals to take on more value-added work. As a result, practitioners can handle vastly larger caseloads. Leading solutions like Checkpoint Tax and Lacerte Tax promise over 50% time savings compared to manual workflows.
This new efficiency empowers firms to scale tax advisory teams to better serve growing client rosters. Automation also reduces the need for tax season overtime, improving work-life balance for professionals.
Promoting Specialization Rather Than Just Speed
As AI handles routine compliance checks, accountants can redirect their focus towards developing deeper mastery of complex planning areas like R&D credits, international tax, mergers and acquisitions, and more.
Rather than aiming to just accelerate general tax preparation, new tools specifically promote targeted specialization. For example, Checkpoint Tax offers tailored research libraries, training materials, and community forums based on specific areas of expertise.
This enables firms to better match practitioner strengths and interests with client needs for niche advisory services. Specialization also builds job satisfaction by allowing professionals to focus on topics they find intrinsically rewarding.
Ultimately, by blending automation and specialization, modern tax software unlocks new potential for accounting teams to deliver both expanded efficiency and expertise. This empowers firms to better guide clients through a complex and ever-changing tax landscape.
