For some time, tax research has been largely about adding new titles to platforms. But in the last two years, the pace has picked up as technology and regulatory change have coincided to accelerate the rate at which new products are introduced. Those events are the simultaneous processes of the move to mobile devices and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act."We have been getting more and more requests from customer on this," says Steve Zelman, an SVP at Thomson Reuters. Zelman places customers in three groups – those who have moved quickly to ask for help and those who admit "I was hoping to avoid this and the time has come."
And there is a third group that puzzles Zelman, those who are "pretending it is not there. The real issue from a practitioner viewpoint is that customers are asking about this."
Thomson is offering healthcare titles for employers and advisors, with those groups having widely diverging needs. For the tax and accounting professional, the PPC offerings are particularly suited to their needs. Not surprisingly, PPC;s Guide to Healthcare Reform is listed on the PPC website one of the best sellers under that product line. It offers real-life examples, worksheets, filled-in forms, quick reference charts of implementation dates, client letters,
On the mobile side, Thomson is pleased with the initial reaction to this year's introduction of the Checkpoint Pocket Assistant, a free app that serves as a hub for the sale of apps with specific functions. Zelman says there has been "quite a bit of activity and an amazing number of down loads" but the company will wait for additional intelligence from the market before trotting out more apps.
Currently, the Pocket Assistant line includes two free apps, the 2013 Income, Gift and Estate Tax Rate card, and the 2013 Pension and Profit-Sharing Plans Dollar Limitations Reflecting Cost-of-Living Adjustments card. It also introduced three apps for purchase: Like-Kind Exchange Calculator and Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Look-up, priced at $1.99 each; and the Health Care Reform Act - Individual Shared Responsibility Penalty Estimator for $2.90. These are available for the Apple iPhone, but will be produced for other platforms later.
CCH is similarly cautious about market reaction to its mobile efforts. Last month, the company updated CCH Mobile, which enables subscribers to access its IntelliConnect research platform via Apple, Android and KindleFire HD devices. New features include the ability to share content on FaceBook and Twitter. Users can also email documents to multiple recipients.
Of course, new technologies are not immediately embraced by everyone. And CCH product manager Tina Rajski notes, "I think firms are all over the place in adoption." Usage is a matter of how deeply embedded mobile technologies are in their work flow, she says. So there is mobile use and then there's mobile use.
"Is it something they are using to check news headlines or is it something they are using to do tax research?" she says. "We find the more you embed mobile in your work flow, the more you are leveraging applications on it and the more you are engaging in social media on it."
CCH reports that firms that actively use mobile technology are using it in the office, not just when members are on the road. That applies especially to the use of tablets, since the full version of IntelliConnect runs on tablets
"They are looking at that tablet like a second laptop," says Rajski. She says the thinking is something like "Maybe I should have invested in tablets instead of laptops. Laptops will be obsolete and I will want to go to the tablet". Or the tablet becomes a second display instead of the firm investing in another large monitor.
However tablets are being utilized, the CCH Mobile update enables firms to print content on the spot – for the Apple iOS only.
Documents can be sent app to AirPlay printers. Users also now have the ability to make notes and annotations on IntelliConnect documents and read them on CCH Mobile. The company also says mobile access to state tax research is easier as a new title on the CCH Mobile home page takes users directly to the CCH State Tax Reporters.
Bloomberg BNA is also active in the state tax area, but from a different perspective. In June, it launched a major expansion of state tax products, particularly the enhancement of the Premier State Tax Library.
"We were looking at ways to expand and become a full-fledged standalone tax service," says product manager Dan Flynn in explaining the product line expansion. The company added areas of taxation not previously covered, with the addition of navigators for Estates, Gifts and Trusts; Excise Tax; and Property Tax. There is also a State Tax Development Tracker that provides updates developments, jurisdictions and topics and includes a customized email alerting feature.
BNA added tools that have been available for some time from the major tax research players – state tax chart builders the same areas covered by the navigators.
The Tracker tool that came with the launch lets users organize content by states. That includes all developments, all laws and cases – all content – says Flynn. "It's a state reporter service," he says. "Not only are we allowing you to do it, people can track by just a single state.
The BNA initiative also featured the summer launch of a joint effort with Tax Materials, which publishes The TaxBook line. That content is being incorporated into BNA's Tax Practice Series. And those who purchase The Tax Prep Guides as part of their Tax Practice Series receive a print copy of TheTaxBook Deluxe Edition