CCH® SmartRelate™ Revolutionizes State Tax Research

(RIVERWOODS, ILL., August 25, 2003) – Professionals can now speed through Internet state tax research with CCH® SmartRelate, while making sure that no relevant documents are overlooked, according to CCH INCORPORATED (CCH), a leading provider of tax information and software. SmartRelate, an exclusive new feature of CCH State Tax Reporters on the CCH InternetSM Tax Research NetWorkTM, links together documents in every topic area in every state of the State Tax Reporters. Each state tax document now contains quick, convenient linking buttons to execute detailed research within a state and between states.

"SmartRelate truly revolutionizes state tax research," said product manager Marcia Suelzer. "Researchers never have to worry whether there are documents they left unexplored. This means that they can work much faster and with more confidence."

Ties Related Documents Together

SmartRelate has two basic functions. First, it ties together different types of documents that relate to a tax topic in a single state. This means that a researcher who is looking at a CCH explanation of any issue – for instance, how a certain transaction is treated for Illinois sales and use tax purposes – can retrieve any additional explanations, as well as relevant statutes, regulations and case law relating to that issue in the Illinois State Tax Reporter.

"You don’t have to backtrack, follow long trails of links or examine long document lists to determine documents relevant to your issue," Suelzer noted. "SmartRelate gives you a list of all the material that is related to your issue and links to get to every one of them."

Icons in state tax documents alert the researcher to the additional types of documents that can be accessed through SmartRelate.

"If you’re interested in finding cases relating to a topic, you’d look for the ‘Cases and Rulings’ SmartRelate icon at the top of the document you were reading," Suelzer said. "This feature can save a lot of time by showing researchers which types of related documents do and don’t exist for a particular issue."

Research Across State Lines

SmartRelate also provides a quick path from any tax topic in one state to the identical topic in other states. Researchers can take advantage of this capability by clicking on the "Topic Connect" icon in each CCH state document.

Suppose, for example, that a researcher needs to know whether and how items sold at auction are liable for sales tax in Georgia and several other states. From any document on that topic in the Georgia State Tax Reporter, the researcher can press "Topic Connect" and go to a list of the 46 states with special provisions regarding auctions, then simply select the states of interest. For each state, SmartRelate provides a list of all relevant statutes, explanations, regulations, cases and rulings on the topic.

"You do your research once, for one state, and all the other states fall into place automatically," Suelzer said. "The time savings is phenomenal. SmartRelate is a great tool for any tax professional who is looking to be more efficient."

For More Information

For more information on CCH State Tax Reporters on Tax Research NetWork, call 800-449-8114 or visit the CCH Online Store at tax.cchgroup.com.

About CCH INCORPORATED

CCH INCORPORATED, headquartered in Riverwoods, Ill., was founded in 1913 and has served four generations of business professionals and their clients. The company produces more than 700 electronic and print products for the tax, legal, securities, insurance, human resources, health care and small business markets. CCH is a Wolters Kluwer company. The CCH web site can be accessed at cch.com. The CCH Tax and Accounting web site can be accessed at tax.cchgroup.com.

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