Xero Tax will for the first time link to CCH iKnow, the online version of CCH’s Master Tax Guide. Every field in Xero Tax’s forms now includes a link directly to the relevant section in iKnow.
As well as contextualised answers from the tax guide, iKnow includes practical tips and checklists. To access iKnow a user clicks on the question mark symbol next to each field in a form in Xero Tax.
“iKnow maps every cell of a tax return to relevant content. A perfect example is a capital gains tax event. How do we treat that? Jump in (to iKnow) and get the answers,” says Matthew Prouse, Xero’s solutions manager for partner products.
CCH released iKnow in Australia three and a half years ago. A New Zealand version launched six weeks ago. Only the Australian version is covered in the Xero Tax deal.
CCH Australia has released three plans for Xero Tax users. A free tool provides up-to-date commentary on legislation, rulings, cases and the text from judgements. The Xero Lite plan ($32 per user per month) adds instructions in forms for Individual, Company, Trust, Partnerships and SMSF tax returns.
It also includes commentary for tax and BAS Agents, an introduction to GST, PAYG, payroll and Tax Agents.
The Xero Gold plan ($58 per user per month) increases the commentary to practical commentary on Tax Law, detailed content covering the set up, management and operation of SMSFs, and an annotated commentary of the ITAA 1936 and 1997 Acts. The top plan also includes the Tax Weekly newsletter, practice tools and worked examples.
The marketing tool CCH iQ is not part of the arrangement. A feature within iFirm, iQ monitors new legislation and curates a list of clients in affected industries.
The app includes email templates so an accountant can ask the curated list if they would like to discuss how the updated law will affect their business. This then generates consulting projects for the accountant.
Xero Tax users can achieve a similar (though slower) result by creating Smart Lists by industry. When iKnow sends an alert about a change, the user can send an email to a Smart List through a connected email marketing program such as MailChimp or Insightly.
“You can favourite content in iKnow. iKnow will notify a tax agent by email if that topic has been updated,” Prouse says. If legislation changed superannuation contributions, accountants can cross-reference it with the report builder in Xero Tax and pull up a report for all clients with item 12, he added.
See Wolter Kluwer’s information page on CCH iKnow and Xero Tax for more information.
Image credit: CCH Australia
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