Question

Which commercial tax service ( for example Ria Checkpoint, CCH Intelliconnect, BNA Tax & Accounting, BNA Tax Accounting and Westlaw, LexisNexis) would you choose if you were starting a tax practice and why? Would challenges would you anticipate going forward with using that tax service? What would you expect to spend on that tax service?

Answer 1

Ria Checkpoint

The Research Institute of America sponsors RIA Checkpoint. RIA began in 1935 as a research source . RIA Checkpoint provides the tax researcher with keyword searches in both technical and natural language . Other search features include citation and content searching . Features of RIA Checkpoint include the Federal Tax Coordinator (FTC), a value added topical research tool .

CCH Intelliconnect

CCH is more streamlined than RIA. All CCH databases employ keyword searching. Additionally, CCH has a thesaurus in the background of the search function . CCH also has the feature of date limitations for searches . In contrast, RIA Checkpoint has a date filter, but it is limited and does not apply to all types of searches. CCH uses filters to categorize results.

Westlaw

Because Westlaw markets mainly to attorneys, it is not as prevalent as RIA and CCH in accounting tax research . Tax firms employing attorneys often use Westlaw . Westlaw provides KeyCite, which is an excellent citator . Westlaw contains an extensive database providing access to RIA, CCH, “law reviews, legal texts, various tax news services, and the WG&L treatises, manuals, journals, and newsletters” . Because it provides such a wide array of entry points for database searching, Westlaw designed a new research product, WestlawNext, which allows researchers to commence a search without having to select a particular database first

Conclusion

A tax researcher typically is familiar with many tools to locate applicable authority to support a conclusion or position for a tax issue. Depending on where the researchers work, they may not have access to more than one of the major services or even a lesser well known service that this paper did not discuss. In case tax professionals change jobs, they should also be aware of the capabilities and relative strengths and weaknesses of the major services. Since the inception of the major tax research services, when they were paper versions filling many binders, the online services are more convenient and powerful, but there still is not just one accepted “best” choice for research..