2019 Review of CCH Sales Tax Office

From the 2019 reviews of sales tax compliance systems.

CCH Sales Tax Office from Wolters Kluwer is a stand-alone system well-suited for larger corporations that need to manage sales and use tax for business entities in a variety of locations. CCH Sales Tax Office is deployed as an on-premise application, and offers seamless integration with CCH Sales Tax Returns Online for those interested in e-filing reports and forms.

CCH Sales Tax Office is designed to calculate taxes at the line item level, and it will manage minimum and maximum tax rules as well as complex tax calculations including tax brackets, tax charts, and tiered tax rates.

Users can customize CCH Sales Tax Office during setup, mapping product SKUs to groups and items. Taxability rules and tax rates can also be customized during setup, with the option to create custom groups and items as well as add taxability overrides, tax rate overrides, and sourcing/situsing overrides, as well as custom taxes. Wolters Kluwer support personnel assist all new users with the initial product setup process to ensure the system is set up and functioning properly. Once the product is up and running, users have limited interaction with the application, as it performs all tax calculations automatically.

Rates are always current, with the product updated monthly. A variety of month-end compliance reports are available for users to run, with the application automatically populating all of the necessary tax forms with the information stored in CCH Sales Tax Office, including sales and use tax forms, schedules, and worksheets. These forms can then be reviewed for accuracy, edited if necessary or printed for filing. There is also e-filing available for those who choose to use CCH Sales Tax Returns Online.

CCH Sales Tax Office offers exemption management and includes 15 built-in exemption reason classifications, with an option to create additional custom exemptions available as well. The product also calculates taxes at multiple levels, and can handle special tax rules in specific tax jurisdictions.

CCH Sales Tax Office has partnered with First American Spatial Solutions (formerly Proxix Solutions) to develop a database of boundary definitions for state, county, and city districts, as well as any temporary tax districts. The application includes geocoding capability based on ship-to, ship-from, order placement and order approval addresses, and also supports multiple ship-to and ship-from combinations.  

CCH Sales Tax Office offers excellent integration capability with popular ERP systems including Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Dynamics GP, NAV and AX systems, along with NetSuite and SAP, with custom integration options available directly from Wolters Kluwer. 

CCH Sales Tax Office also offers consumer use tax processing, with self-assessments available, which helps to prevent possible tax overpayments. This is done by configuring the application to identify the proper location, product, service classification, and usage to ensure accurate calculation.

CCH Sales Tax Office reporting options are centered around month-end sales and use tax reports, though users can run system reports for any date range specified. Audit reports are available for sales tax calculations performed as well as certificate exemptions. Users can review each report for accuracy, and, if using CCH Sales Tax Returns Online, prepare the month-end data for e-filing.

CCH Sales Tax Office, like all Wolters Kluwer applications, offers solid support options, with users able to access support directly from the application. A searchable knowledgebase is available 24/7 and registered users also have access to an extensive video library. Product support is available during regular business hours, with telephone, email, and chat support options offered, with a robust user community available as well.

The base subscription to CCH Sales Tax Office includes an all-states subscription to Wolters Kluwer general merchandise data, and a subscription update manager utility that manages all data updates. APIs are available to make ERP integration easier, and a sales tax address validation API, which includes real-time address scrubbing and validation, is available in the application as well.

In addition to general sales tax calculations, Wolters Kluwer offers specialized product group and item databases in niche industries such as food, restaurant, and medical equipment.

Well-suited for large corporations that have complex sales and use tax needs, CCH Sales Tax Office is designed to provide accurate, behind-the-scenes sales and use tax calculations. For those that wish to e-file returns, the optional CCH Sales Tax Online offers complete form completion and e-filing capability, and integrates with CCH Sales Tax Office. Users can visit the CCH Sales Tax Office website to sign up for a demo or request pricing information directly from the vendor.

2019 Overall Rating: 5 Stars