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TAX PREPARATION VENDORS ARE SPEAKING a new language. Well, it's not a new language. It's just one that's being spoken in many more areas of the United States-Spanish. Of course, vendors are still filling out their product lines with new state and federal individual tax forms. And last year's hot trends of adding document management features and reducing data entry are still important developments.
However, both consumer and professional-oriented tax prep vendors are ramping up the features available to Hispanics. It's a big deal for those who have Hispanic clients, of course, and it's a really big deal for tax software vendors who are looking for growth in an otherwise saturated market.
Among companies making a major move into the Spanish-language market is Thomson Reuters with its UltraTax CS software. The company is expanding into Puerto Rico, in large part because of its experience with other applications in its CS line.
"We have had huge success in Puerto Rico in engagement and practice management products," says Teresa Mackintosh, vice president of marketing for the Dexter, Mich.-based UltraTax operations.
Puerto Rico has thousands of businesses that need to file returns for the United States as well as for Puerto Rico, so the company is introducing 1120 and 1065 business forms. It will also be offering Spanish client documents and many 1040 states with large Spanish-speaking populations.
Similarly, CCH Small Firm Services is increasing the forms and services available to preparers who deal with Spanish-speaking clients.
"We have about 75 of the most commonly used forms in the 1040," notes Gene Goldenberg, vice president of marketing for the Rome, Ga.-based operation. "You can toggle back and forth between English and Spanish."
CCH is not offering the same features in its ATX line, Goldenberg says that the reason is that the Hispanic market frequently involves high-volume, multi-office locations that utilize many products, which fits the market that has historically been served by Tax Wise.
According to Drake Software vice president Kerri Carpenter her company has Spanish-language support and is converting phone support messages to Spanish.
The new kid on the Spanish-speaking block is Latino Tax Service, which is fielding MultiTax, for differing needs of this market.
Initially, Manuel Alvarez intended that MultiTax, the product marketed by his...