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Much as their development of Internet-based applications raised the stakes in tax prep software, vendors RIA and CCH are now upping the ante in tax-planning technology.
The tax compliance giants are going head to head with separate applications that do the spadework in finding tax planning prospects - CCH's ClientRelate, and Tax Alerts from RIA, a Thomson business. Both products link the companies' respective tax compliance and tax research products to identify clients who may require tax-planning services as a result of the tax implications of recent regulatory or legislative changes.
Riverwoods, Ill.-based CCH's ClientRelatc combines its Tax Research Network with its ProSystem fx application to pinpoint clients who are affected by new tax developments, or who may benefit from additional services. It performs three types of searches:
* Search by tax bulletin. The program navigates the practitioner's entire client base to see which clients are impacted by new tax law developments.
* Search by client. ClientRelate will analyze a particular client's tax data to find which services might be most beneficial to them.
* Search by service. ClientRelate will check across the preparer's client base to see which clients would benefit from a particular service.
A companion research tool, SmartRelate, does for state tax research what ClientRelate does for the federal side.
RIA's Tax Alerta is a daily Web-based compliance news service, with reports showing the impact of developments on completed tax returns. Each item is analyzed with regard to its significance, with suggestions on how the tax professional should respond. The service can be used as a stand-alone news service, but it is generally used as a link between RIA's Internet-based research vehicle, Checkpoint, and RIA's GoSystem RS.
For GoSystem Tax RS and InSource Express RS users, the service provides a summary report on the...