Selecting a
Web-based tax research service is not a simple
task. Commercial publishers offer a variety of
premium and economy plans that can be bundled and
priced in many ways. The variations make the
selection process especially difficult. Although
the basic pricing and services of the products are
similar, it’s the extras—such as level of service,
degree of customization and ease of access—that
differentiate them. This article is
designed to help tax professionals wade through
the product details to find the service that best
suits their needs and budget (see Exhibits
1
and 2).
GO FOR THE WEB The two
obvious advantages of a Web-based service over a
paper-based or noncommercial Internet resource are
the ability to easily toggle between primary and
secondary sources through hypertext links and to
use keywords to simultaneously search sources.
For practitioners who prefer more
traditional research methods, most Web-based
products also permit searches by citation, table
of contents or topical index. A Web-based service
also provides daily updates of primary and
secondary sources and enables access to the data
from any computer with an Internet connection. In
addition, the user no longer needs to continuously
update a large paper library. The tax
research services listed in this article include
Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), Commerce
Clearing House (CCH), Research Institute of
America (RIA), LexisNexis, Tax Analysts and
Kleinrock. All provide access to primary tax law
sources (Internal Revenue Code, Treasury
regulations, rulings and cases). One key
characteristic that differentiates these services
is how they package tax law and analyses—either as
an annotated or a topical service. Although the
distinction between the two methods was important
in a paper environment, now, with the advent of
keyword searches, it’s less significant. Several
research providers (CCH, RIA and Kleinrock)
include annotated services in which editorial
explanations and analyses are arranged
chronologically by IRC section number. All
providers offer services that arrange editorial
materials by topic.
CITATORS AND TREATISES
Another useful research tool is the citator,
which is an editorial resource that lets the
practitioner assess the validity of case law and
IRS administrative rulings. Currently, only CCH,
RIA and LexisNexis provide citators. These same
research services, in addition to BNA, also offer
access to a vast selection of treatises that offer
background details in a specific area and are
particularly useful to practitioners dealing with
unfamiliar issues. Most research services
provide their own editorial materials as secondary
sources, although CCH and RIA customers also can
subscribe to the BNA Tax Management Portfolios.
LexisNexis offers its own topical service and
code-based service (Tax Advisor Federal Topical
and Tax Advisor Federal Code) in addition to
content from other publishers, including CCH, BNA,
Tax Analysts, Matthew Bender and Kleinrock.
Pricing for a year’s subscription among
research providers ranges from a few hundred
dollars for a single user of a basic economy
service to tens of thousands of dollars for
premium content for multiple users. CCH, BNA, RIA
and LexisNexis let users customize how much
content they buy. In contrast, Tax Analysts and
Kleinrock offer just two fixed-content bundles:
one with less editorial content and another
premium-priced version with more editorial
analysis. LexisNexis offers a
pay-as-you-go plan based on usage. All of the
premium research packages offer at least one tax
journal. However, both premium and economy
services include either a weekly and/or daily
newsletter to keep practitioners current on new
federal, state and local tax developments. These
timely periodicals increasingly are delivered via
e-mail and often are customized to a user’s
specific interests. Recently, some
research firms have begun integrating their
Web-based tax research services with
tax-preparation software, allowing a practitioner
to research questions while working on a tax
return. CCH’s Tax Research Network has a free link
to its ProSystem fx for users who
subscribe to the Standard Federal Tax Reporter and
Tax Research Consultant libraries. RIA links to
its Insource Express RS, GoSystem Tax RS and
Creative Solutions’ Ultra Tax CS for a fee; and
Kleinrock’s research products integrate with its
ATX 1040 Total Tax Office product—also for an
additional charge. The vendors make
creative use of technology in other ways. CCH’s
CCH @ Hand, a product included as part
of every Tax Research Network subscription, allows
Microsoft products—Word, Excel, PowerPoint and
Outlook—to communicate with its Internet-based
library. For example, Code Section and Revenue
Rulings can be linked to and accessed directly via
e-mail. Additionally, the LexisNexis Tax Center
now includes a bill back feature that makes it
easy for practitioners to track research sessions
by client for efficient and accurate billing.
CONTENT AND ACCESS
Accessibility is the most significant
difference among all of the research services. A
user’s ease of access to content and the Web
site’s “feel” while performing search queries are
important considerations to users, which is why
potential subscribers should take advantage of the
vendors’ free trial offers. Each research
service has a main menu separating the primary
legal sources from the secondary sources. Each
product looks and works differently. For example,
the Boolean connectors used for performing a
keyword search vary by service. Listed
below are the major differences in editorial
content, search method capability, platform layout
and appearance:
BNA’s Tax and Accounting Center
includes its Tax Management
Portfolios as well as the topical Tax Practice
Series and the Daily Tax Report newsletter.
Similar to its paper publication, BNA’s electronic
resource also is topically designed. From a
keyword search, which is available from every
screen, and citation search, the results screen
displays the search query as well as two ways to
review results. Users have the option of sorting
search results by relevance or grouped in the
order of the Portfolio number or Tax Practice
chapter number. BNA also uses a “1” and “2” system
to signal that subheadings are viewable within a
specific topic. In addition, BNA provides the
option to open categories by level and to view
documents in split or full screen. The
split-screen display accommodates browsing through
the publication since a user can move around the
table of contents of the publication being viewed.
CCH products include the
Standard Federal Tax Reporter, CCH Research
Consultant, U.S. Master Tax Guide and CCH Citator
in addition to numerous journals and newsletters.
This research resource differs significantly in
its appearance and layout from other services. It
organizes each of its major databases (for
example, Federal Tax, State Tax, Pension and
Payroll, Sales/Property Tax) using folder tabs. It
uses a “Search Tools” button so users can
customize keyword searches (for example, search
methods, number of documents retrieved and how
results will be listed). A unique feature is its
thesaurus, which runs in the background on every
keyword search; all the other services require a
user to take extra steps to select the synonyms
for the keywords being used in a search.
Kleinrock’s Federal Tax Expert
service offers users access to
Kleinrock’s Expert Analysis and CCH’s U.S. Master
Tax Guide: Kleinrock Edition. As with other
publishers, it provides search capability using
either keyword, table of contents or citation, and
documents retrieved from a search are sorted by
relevance within each library searched. Boolean
connectors used in a keyword search within
Kleinrock can be selected from a dropdown menu.
LexisNexis Tax Center
contains an array of content from
other publishers, such as BNA, CCH, Tax Analysts,
Matthew Bender and Shepard’s Citator Service as
well as its own new library, the Tax
Advisor—Federal Code. In addition to the
traditional index and table of contents, users can
search by keyword, code section and citation. In
addition, the results are sorted by relevance and
by category (for example, Statute and Regulations,
Agency Materials, Professional Practice and
Cases). Within each category, each source (IRC,
Rulings, etc.) is listed along with the number of
documents within that source. The service includes
Shepard’s Citation Service signals (stop signs,
warnings, green lights, etc.) that let users know
if Administrative Rulings and case law are still
valid.
RIA’s publications include
the Federal Tax Coordinator 2d, United States Tax
Reporter, Citator 2nd Series and the various
Warren, Gorham & Lamont journals and
treatises. This service makes keyword searches
easy by clearly identifying required steps on the
Search main menu. Findings from a search are
summarized in a Results List, which gives the user
the number of documents found by publication. A
unique tool available for all tax types in the
state reporter series is the “Compare It” feature,
which links explanations that are provided for
several states, helping users compare similar
issues in several states. RIA also uses a sidebar
to monitor and summarize search activity and
provide links to additional tools, resources and
references.
Tax Analysts provides
practitioners with access to the Federal Tax
Baedeker, as well as eight other databases, all of
which can be searched through either a keyword,
table of contents or citation search. Multiple
databases can be searched simultaneously, and
results can be sorted either by relevance or
document type—a useful service at an affordable
price.
Exhibit
1 : Premium Web-Based Research Services
Exhibit
2 : Select Economy Web-Based Research
Services
MAKING THE SELECTION As
you can see, the buying decision is complicated
because, although the basic services and prices
are similar, it’s the extras that play a major
role in selecting a product. All the services
offer some type of training, ranging from
Web-based help to in-depth, self-paced tutoring,
involving sample research questions. Customer
support also is available either online, by
chat, phone or e-mail. Since all of the services
offer a free trial, it’s prudent to take a test
run.
Anthony H. Catanach Jr. ,
CPA, Ph.D., is an associate professor of
accounting at Villanova University. His e-mail
address is
anthony.catanach@villanova.edu. C.
Andrew Lafond, CPA, DBA, is an
assistant professor of accounting and taxation
at Philadelphia University. His e-mail address
is lafonda@philau.edu.
Shelley C.
Rhoades-Catanach, CPA, Ph.D., is an
associate professor of accounting at
Villanova. Her e-mail address is shelley.rhoades@villanova.edu. |