Bank Investment Consultant

I'm not aware of an Excel-based package. And I'd strongly suggest not trying to build this yourself, the tax code is much too complex to model accurately without a ton of programming work. A few of us who post on these boards use BNA Income Tax Planner. It's updated regularly and is well worth the licensing cost.

-Tad

I fully agree with Tad.  I actually DID just that about five years ago and made a lot of progress in having a full functional working spreadsheet model for Federal tax only.  The problem was the amount of work involved to make it work not to mention constantly changing law made it a waste of time for my purposes.

MrC,

You might find Glenn Reeves' Excel-based Form 1040 fairly useful for relatively straightforward personal returns.  You'll be able to run illustrations in real-time, and if you have multiple monitors, you can compare the forms and worksheets side-by-side.

http://home.mchsi.com/~taxcalculator/

Bill Winterberg

FPPad.com

Thank you Bill for that site.  I've downloaded the software and kicked the tires for my needs and was very impressed with the depth of his worksheets.

I buy Turbo Tax Deluxe annually for personal use for my family and select customers for $40.  As part of my fact finding I request tax returns and replicate their return on the software.  There is a little known tool under "forms" of the program called 'what if'.  In this file, you can keep the current year and for 3 additional 'what if' scenarios make changes to the base tax year.

I know I have won business using this program.  It is a powerful statement when you have duplicated the customer's return as part of your recommendations and the impact they will have on their bottom line.

Yes, initially it is somewhat time consuming to learn (but is a snap for me now) and to enter data but well worth the time and little expense for the software.  You can even buy each state version for about $10 additional.

If you have a complicated return or extra high net worth investor I do not produce the return for them but still MAY just show them the 'what if'.

It's interesting that I have a presentation tomorrow with a millionaire with about 1/2 of a million in liquid assets, an income well over $100k, and his accountant appears to use the same software.  And what may be an eye opener for the prospective client (or for me) is why my software triggered some of my questions as to why obvious deductions were not taken...ie professional fees for the tax  return preparation?     

Thanks for that idea.  I use TaxCut and I'm pretty sure the same feature is there too.  I'm going to give it a shot for my needs.  Like you, I always ask for their most recent tax return and if something jumps out at  me I point it out to them.

I buy Turbo Tax Deluxe annually for personal use for my family and select customers for $40.  As part of my fact finding I request tax returns and replicate their return on the software.  There is a little known tool under "forms" of the program called 'what if'.

I didn't know TurboTax had a forward-looking feature to it, haven't used it in years. I wonder how accurate it is...BNA's software checks for updates every time you fire it up and downloads them at least a few times per year. As we all know some key parts of the tax code change every year.

Regarding the omission of professional fees for tax return prep - like medical expenses, it might be an item that was simply left off the return because it was well below the floor for deductibility. I'd be surprised if an accountant prepared returns using Turbo Tax, but Intuit owns ProSeries and the cover sheets & all that may look similar.

-Tad

I don't want to rain on the parade, but I really have some strong opinions about preparing tax returns or tax projections.  Unless you are a "tax professional", you really should not be doing tax projections for clients.  There is no software or Excel spreadsheet that is an adequate substitute for a qualfied, experienced tax professional. Even though the CFP program contains a tax section, it's really a high level overview of tax law.  Unless tax is something you do all day, every day...I highly urge you to seek out someone who does.  Every financial planning practioner networks with CPAs and tax professional, so here is a perfect opportuntity to work with them.

The Tax Dude™ (and I would never think of giving investment advice, because that's not what I do all day, every day)

Tax Dude, agreed that software isn't all that is needed and tax isn't for everyone. But software is essential for those who do this kind of work...which packages do you use and would you recommend them?

-Tad