The CCH Internet Tax Research NetWork at CWU

| Introduction | Accessing CCH | Exploring a New Topic | Using a Citation | Using the Citator | Using Your Results |

Introduction

The CCH Internet Tax Research NetWork is a tax service that provides access to the primary and secondary sources of tax research information. It is one of the three major tax services that are commonly used by practicing tax professionals and it is available through the CWU library network. You can easily access it and use it. As you do, you will be gaining experience with online research tools and methodologies that you are likely to use during your accounting career.

The CWU library subscribes to the Federal, State, and Financial & Estate "libraries" offered by CCH. You access each of them individually by selecting the appropriate tag in the desktop.  In our course, the focus will be on the Federal tax service and there are three ways that you can use it:

• To explore a tax issue for which you have no information about relevant information.

• When you know the citation (location information) for the document.

• When you need to see the history of a court case and how it was used as precedent in subsequent court cases.

Note: You can download a copy of the CCH Tax Research NetWork Quick Start Guide by clicking on the appropriate link at the bottom of your CCH Desktop Favorites web page.

| Top |

Accessing the CCH NetWork

Since the CCH NetWork is a very expensive subscription, only CWU faculty, staff, and students can access it. However, they can access it from anywhere in the World using one of the two following procedures:

• If logged on to the CWU network-
  Click on the following link to directly access the CCH service (use your right mouse button and open it in a new window): CCH Internet Tax Research NetWork
   

• If not logged on to the CWU Network-
  First, click on the following link to access the CWU Library's database web page: http://www.lib.cwu.edu/databases/. Then, select the CCH Internet Tax Research Network Link. You must login to the service using your last name and your CWU ID number.

| Top |

Using CCH to Explore a Tax Issue

When you have a new issue to explore, you can use "common" search techniques to have CCH search its primary and secondary sources for relevant information. This is a two-step process:

1. Select those reference materials that you want CCH to search. The preferred way to do this  is to click on the Search Options button and select the documents of interest. Then click on the Apply Changes at the bottom of the page and continue to step 2. (This web page also gives you access to a helpful list of search tips.)
    

2. Type in your search terms.

| Top |

Using CCH When You Know the Citation

When you know the citation (reference sources) for primary and secondary sources of information, you can use the Citation Search to find the document. The Citation Search web page has an impressive (overwhelming) list of the means by which you can find the document. You need to be very careful to find the appropriate subsection on the web page in which to enter your search parameters (the subsections are separated by subheadings in cells with purple backgrounds). Generally, the form is user friendly in that it guides you to enter the parameters in the necessary format.

Hint: One way to increase your odds of finding the Citation Search web page with the most options is to:

1. Go to the My CCH tab

2. Click on the Find by Citation button at the top of the web page

3. Scroll down to the United States Tax Cases section and find the appropriate template for the court citation that you have.

| Top |

Using CCH to Assess the Currency/Relevancy of a Case

Once you find a relevant court case or ruling, you need to determine how subsequent court cases have applied them in similar situations. You do this with the CCH Citator. The Citator web page provides a form in which you enter the citation information from your original case or ruling. The service then checks for other court cases that have referenced it and how they referenced it.

Using Your Results

In addition to reading the results of your searches online, you can also print them and export them to a Word document.