IRS Calculator Uses CCH Sales Tax Data

For the eighth consecutive year, the Internal Revenue Service has chosen CCH to provide the agency with comprehensive sales tax rate and taxability tables that can be used by millions of taxpayers in preparing their returns.

CCH’s taxability and tax rate information for state and local jurisdictions supports the IRS’s online Sales Tax Deduction Calculator, which is available to taxpayers for filing 2012 income tax returns. The data enables the IRS to list the average amount of sales tax—according to income and family size—that should be paid in each jurisdiction. These average amounts represent a “standard market basket” of consumer expenditures.

Taxpayers relying on these IRS tables can determine whether to deduct their state and local sales tax versus their state and local income tax, without having to save all their receipts throughout the year to tally sales tax that was actually paid.

Information for IRS tables, used by taxpayers to determine optional sales tax deductions for income tax returns, is generated from several CCH workflow tools, including the database providing updated sales tax data for every zip code, city, county and state in the United States and its territories. Tax information for IRS tables also comes from CCH’s IntelliConnect research system. By leveraging these solutions, CCH supplies the IRS with updated sales tax information for all U.S. tax jurisdictions.

In addition to providing data for the Sales Tax Deduction Calculator, CCH is also supplying the IRS with data related to the taxability rules for more than 500 Bureau of Labor Statistics spending categories. 

“We are delighted to continue our partnership with the IRS by providing the latest updated rate and taxability information for every zip code in the country,” said CCH vice president and corporate general manager Scott Gruchot in a statement. “Delivering valuable multijurisdictional sales tax information gives us the opportunity to directly support millions of taxpayers and tax professionals who regularly integrate our solutions into their daily workflow, allowing them to make informed decisions based on the latest CCH tax data.”

For the first time this year, CCH’s sales tax software will give taxpayers access to granular tax districts rather than full-city tax rates. The ability to pinpoint specific municipal sales tax rates provides a higher degree of accuracy and enhances the taxpayer experience by allowing users to precisely identify their tax jurisdictions.

For more information, visit www.CCHGroup.com/CorpSystem.

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