The 2015 Annual Survey of New York State Practitioners, Tax Preparation published in the November 2015 issue, revealed that free tax research tools have become increasingly popular with tax professionals. Free research applications are well liked at firms of all sizes, especially smaller practices, and might provide fast and easy answers for busy and mobile CPAs. Commercial services should not be overlooked, however, and offer some useful free materials to non-subscribers.

Search Engines

Google Tax Research.

Google’s tax research tool can be found at http://www.globaltaxlaws.com/google_tax_research. Google’s tax research engine will yield different search results than just a general Google search by keyword filtering, though it requires some experimentation to obtain useful results. The outcomes are presented in no particular order and will probably include some outdated materials that remain on websites. However, Google pulls up a wide range of items that would not be available in a one-step search on a commercial provider.

Google tax research findings can be organized by federal tax, secondary source, state and local tax, international tax, and primary source. Most items appear on multiple groups, as indicated on each entry’s label.

As an example, the “research and experimentation credit” has been in the news lately. Congress has made the credit permanent and allowed eligible small businesses to apply it against the alternative minimum tax liability. Google can process the search under either the formal tax name for the credit, or under that more common accounting term “research and development” credit. The first items that appear under the “all” results tab are a Wikipedia entry and some older entries from 2010; scrolling through the results list, however, turns up some interesting materials, such as IRC Section 41 on the Legal Information Institute (Cornell Law School), the Form 6765 for claiming the credit, and the IRS audit techniques guide. Other results include articles and reports from IRS publications, the Government Accountability Office, Tax Policy Center, Congressional Research Service, the IRS website, and journal articles.

Lexis Web.

Lexis Web is a free online legal search engine that provides access to general Internet information, at http://www.lexisweb.com. The search scope can be refined based on practice area, such as taxation law, site type, related topics, jurisdiction, source, and file format.

Lexis Web is most useful for locating more general information rather than up-to-the-minute practice applications. However, it does include some interesting materials that may not turn up from other sources. For example, a search for “shared responsibility payment” turns up selections from IRS Internal Revenue Bulletins, and articles on a variety of commercial and free websites and blogs, such as the IRS, the U.S. Small Business Administration, National Business Group on Health, and CPA firms.

. For example, the “Presidential Candidates’ Positions on Taxes” report (bit.ly/1Z8fOfU) summarizes candidates’ remarks by topic, including individual income and capital gains tax rates, alternative minimum tax, credits and deductions, employment taxes, retirement incentives, healthcare, corporate tax rates, international business taxes, and estate taxes.

Bloomberg BNA also conducts an annual survey of state tax departments. The 2015 survey report focuses on issues such as nexus policies and income sourcing. States have still not made progress on developing uniform income sourcing policies, particularly with regard to services, intangibles, and cloud computing. Tables of state-by-state policies and practices are also available, and helpful for understanding each state’s basic positions (bit.ly/1ZcigY2). Bloomberg BNA also offers practical resources like the “2016 Projected U.S. Tax Rates” report which includes pro forma income tax rate schedules, tax credit ranges, retirement savings caps, and many more projections.