Financial data and services company CCH claimed it would be the first accounting software vendor to launch a complete cloud-based tax platform in Australia.
“Beginning in July we’re coming out with a cloud-based tax application in Australia,” Russell Evans, CEO of CCH Australia, said.
The tax application will provide electronic lodgement of tax returns for individuals as well as companies.
“We’re replicating what we have in New Zealand for a number of years,” Evans said. The company had been working on it to satisfy Australian requirements over the past 18 months, he added.
The lack of a cloud-based tax platform has held accounting firms back from getting rid of their servers.
Xero-centric accounting firms using Xero’s cloud-based practice management software have had to keep using server-based tax packages from MYOB, Handisoft and Reckon to submit tax returns.
Xero announced it had decided to build its own a cloud-based tax platform which would be released in stages over the next 18 months.
CCH’s tax platform would be part of CCH’s cloud practice management suite, CCH iFirm. CCH bought iFirm from New Zealand company Acclipse last year.
An accountant could perform client accounting work in the general ledger, produce a tax return and lodge it electronically without leaving the iFirm interface.
“It doesn’t sound that sexy but for an accountant looking to streamline tax prep work, there’s a lot of downward pressure on prices at the moment. You need to streamline their processes,” Evans said.
CCH was determined to help accountants be more efficient at tax compliance and spend more time offering more profitable advisory services to clients, Evans said.
