Web-based tax resources.

• Author: Schmidt, Dennis R.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

* Tax professionals looking for information on the Web should familiarize themselves with search engines and general subject and tax-specific directories.

* The IRS has established a very popular Website known as The Digital Daily.

* The Web contains a variety of sites that address the legislative, administrative and judicial aspects of the tax law; while some of these sites are free, others are fee-based.

A veritable cornucopia of tax information is now available at the touch of a keyboard. The Internet teems with tax sites to aid the tax practitioner's need for Federal, state or international tax information. This article discusses some of the more useful tax information sites found on the World Wide Web, and explains the gamut of information now available.

The popular press abounds with stories of how people are using the World Wide Web (Web) for electronic commerce and worldwide dissemination of knowledge. The Web also has thousands of sites with useful references, forms and software for tax practitioners. This article describes how to locate tax resources on the Web, lists some of the most useful tax-oriented Websites by category and suggests ways to improve certain governmental sites.

How to Begin

Tax professionals seeking information on the Web should familiarize themselves with search engines and general subject and tax-specific directories. A search engine is a tool that provides a list of hyperlinked Web documents to match certain keywords provided by the user. Popular search engines include:

* AltaVista (http://www.altavista.digital.com)

* Excite (http://www.excite.com)

* HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com)

* Infoseek (http://www.infoseek.com)

* LookSmart (http://www.looksmart. com)

* Lycos (http://www.lycos.com)

* Northern Light (http://www.northernlight.com)

* Snap! (http://www.snap.com)

* WebCrawler (http://www.webcrawler. com)

* Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com)

The Web addresses for all of the sites discussed in this article are listed in Exhibit 1 in the box on pp. 100-101.

Exhibit 1: Summary of Websites Search Engines/General Directories AltaVista http://www.altavista.digital.com Excite http://www.excite.com HotBot http://www.hotbot.com Infoseek http://www.infoseek.com LookSmart http://www.looksmart.com Lycos http://www.lycos.com Northern Light http://www.northernlight.com Snap http://www.snap.com WebCrawler http://www.webcrawler.com Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com Tax Directories Tax and Accounting Sites Directory http://www.taxsites.com Will Yancey's Home Page http://www.willyancey.com Tax Resources http://www.taxresources.com TaxWeb http://www.taxweb.com IRS Website Home Page http://www.irs.ustreas.gov Topic Index http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/ search/site_tree.html Tax Professional's Corner http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/ bus info/tax_pro Regulations http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/ tax_regs Internal Revenue Bulletin http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/ bus_info/bullet.html Forms and Instructions http://www.irs.ustreos.gov/prod/ forms_pubs/forms.html Federal Tax Law (free services) Legislative: Thomas Legislative Information http://thomas.loc.gov House Ways and Means Committee http://www.house.gov/ways_means Senate Finance Committee http://www.senate.gov/~finance Joint Committee on Taxation http://www.house.gov/jct Government Printing Office http://www.access.gpo.gov/ su_docs U.S. Code http://law.house.gov/usc.htm Administrative: Code of Federal Regulations http://www.access.gpo. gov/nara/cfr Regulations (IRS) http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/ tax_regs Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRS) http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/ bus_info/bullet.html Revenue Rulings http://www.taxlinks.com Judicial: FindLaw (cases and Code) http://www.findlaw.com/casecode Directory: Federal Tax Law http://www.taxsites.com/ federal.html Commercial Subscription Services Bureau of National Affairs http://www.bna.com Commerce Clearing House http://tax.cch.com Current Legal Resources http://www.currentlegal.com Lexis-Nexis http://www.lexis-nexis.com Research Institute of America http://checkpoint.riag.com Tax Analyst http://www.tax.orgs TaxLibrary.com http://www.taxlibrary.com West Group http://www.westgroup.com State and Local Taxes State and Local Taxes Directory http://www.taxsites.com/ state.html Web Sites for State and Local Tax Professionals http://www.willyancey.com/ tax-salt.htm State Tax Agencies http://www.taxsites.com/ agencies.html Federation of Tax Administrators http://www.taxadmin.org Multistate Tax Commission http://www.mtc.gov Arthur Andersen's State and Local Tax Services http://www.arthurandersen. com/salt KPMG's State and Local Tax http://www.us.kpmg.com/salt PricewaterhouseCoopers' http://www.clnewsnet.com/tnn/ Multistate Tax Update multistate.html International Tax International Tax Directory http://www.taxsites.com/ international.html Ernst & Young's Doing Business In http://www.doingbusinessin.com KPMG's International Tax http://www.tax.kpmg.net Tax Treaties--Bradley Smith http://www.intltaxlaw.com Tax Treaties--Danziger's FDI http://www.danzigerfdi.com Tax Forms Forms, Instructions and Publications Directory http://www.taxsites.com/ forms.html IRS Forms and Instructions http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/ forms_pubs/forms.html Adobe Acrobat Reader[R] http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/ acrobat/readstep.html Tax Help, Tips and Articles Tax Help, Tips & Articles Directory http://www.taxsites.com/help.html Deloitte & Touche's Tax Planning Guide http://www.dtonline.com/ KPMG's Strategies for taxguide97/cover.htm Financial Planning http://www.us.kpmg.com/ pfp/strategies Quicken.com's Taxes http://www.quicken.com/taxes SmartMoney's Tax Guide http://www.smartmoney.com/ac/tax Tax Updates and Discussions Deloitte & Touche's Tax News http://www.dtonline.com/ and Views tnv/tnv.htm Ernst & Young's TaxCast http://www.taxcast.com PricewaterhouseCoopers' Tax News http://www.taxnews.com NetworkTax Analysts' Tax News http://www.tax.org/TodaysTaxNews IRS Digital Dispatch http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/ Mailing list help/newmail/maillist.html Moderated Newsgroup news:misc.taxes.moderated Tax Analysts' Discussion Groups http://www.tax.org/Discuss/ discussion.htm On-Line Tax Preparation TurboTax http://www.intuit.com/turbotax TaxCut http://www.taxcut.com FileSafe http://www.filesafe.net SecureTax http://www.securetax.com TaxAttack http://www.taxattack.com TaxLogic http://www.taxlogic.com Tax Organizations Tax Associations Directory http://www.taxsites.com/ associations.html Policy and Tax Reform Groups http://www.taxsites.com/ Directory policy.html AICPA http://www.aicpa.org Tax Software, Publishers and CPE Tax Software Directory...