Level 3

Tax research service and Quickfinders

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
May 28, 2024
4 replies
17 views

I want to invest in a tax research service that is informative and reasonably priced. I would welcome suggestions.

Also, I have always used the 1040 Quickfinder as well as the ones for Small Business and All States. I am considering investing in some of the others as well. I would be very interested to know which Quickfinders other tax professionals have found useful. Thank you!

Tax Talk

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strongsilence

Level 10

Thanks for posting this topic. @lkgcpa

You read my mind because CCH Answer Connect has a 15% discount that expires tomorrow. This is a good product. $1,500 per year before discount. AnswerConnect essentials is $750. This product is for very small firms and is tempting.

I am feeling dissatisfied with the CCH product as finding answers seems to take more navigation than I have had time for. So, I think the Master Tax Guide is what I'm going to purchase.

Quickfinder is good. I remember the ease of use and the intuitive organization of the printed copies. I stopped it about five years but might restart. How much does it cost?

There is a nice little newsletter, I forget the name. Someone will jump in and tell me.

And, finally, in a less popular opinion, I am finding that ChatGPT will provide reliable answers...with citations. (Some extra work to verify answer you might think are not correct.)

I think I made up my mind: CCH Master Tax Guide $349, Quickfinder Small Business $81, ChatGPT $20/month, Spidell CPE for California taxes $348, Google, and the Lacerte community comprise my library.

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lkgcpaAuthor

Level 3

Thanks so much for the information, Strongsilence and PATAX. I really appreciate it!

@PATAX, which Quickfinders do you use?

PATAX

Level 12

@lkgcpa You're welcome. I get the individual 1040 quickfinder, the small business quickfinder, and the depreciation quickfinder. I was thinking about getting the All state quickfinder, do you recommend that?

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strongsilence

Level 10

US Master Tax Guide has a discount. I bought it for $182.86

Quickfinder Small Business (print) is $97.39

CCH answerConnect is good product but it increased sharply by about $300 from 2022 to 2024.

PATAX

Level 12

I get the Quickfinder books and also Taxbook Deluxe. Also two different US Master tax guide books from two different publishers. I think the newsletter that strongsilence is referring to is the Kiplinger Tax Report which I also get. All of the aforementioned are worth their weight in gold to me. Different tax pro organizations and CPE providers also have very informative newsletters . But you do what you want to do.

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DSWTaxes

Level 2

You make a valid point. I try to use the book that aligns with the software I am using. I have used both The TaxBook and the Quickfinders. I worked at places that really encouraged us to use these resources but wouldn't pay for them. So as employees, we would get together, decide which book we wanted and place an order with each company for the books requested. Once we knew how many of which, the person would divide the shipping cost among us and get us a discounted rate. I tend to lean towards the Quickfinder as it is quicker to use.

BobKamman

Level 15

Some days I just want to pitch a revival tent and preach to tax practitioners, “Throw away your crutches.”

Before we had the Internet and Google, there wasn’t an alternative to cutting down trees and paying publishers to organize bits of tax law according to Code section (which, ultimately, is all they do). But today, you have the same resources they have. So use them.

Many of my clients are not wealthy. I tell them I don’t pay for my overhead; it all comes from them. I don’t want to bill them for buying stuff that I can find just as easily for free, if I know where and how to look.

Ask yourself, what are you finding in publications that doesn’t come from stuff you can locate with a few keystrokes online? It may take some practice to develop that skill, but it will maintain and improve your professionalism when you learn where these people are getting all that free information they are trying to sell you.

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strongsilence

Level 10

Bob's rant is the LC community equivalent of "old man shakes fist at the clouds".

Your revival approach works for you. Great! It isn't for everyone. We know we can get the info on the internet but many people like it organized and easily found. A few keystrokes can be equivalent to the locating a word on a TOC or an index then flipping to the relevant page.

I like trying to save trees. Good for us that you mention it. But much paper that is made today is from recycled or repurposed materials.

BobKamman

Level 15

@strongsilence Do you realize how much carbon fuel has to be burned to produce the energy needed to recycle all that paper? But the online community will little note nor long remember my views on Internet research, which I post mostly to reassure others that they are not missing much if they don't spend their money on the gutta percha of information delivery systems. Where newspaper and magazine publishing has gone, the textbooks and reference books are following without my help.

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