BNA Software — BNA Income Tax Planner

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From the October 2009 Review of Tax Planning Systems

Loaded with advanced features, BNA Income Tax Planner from BNA Software is an excellent tool for accountants currently offering or planning to offer tax planning services to their clients. BNA updates its products when tax laws change, or new code sections are added, and makes those changes available to clients within days, so your product will always be accurate.

PROGRAM USE/DATA ENTRY -
Navigating BNA Income Tax Planner is easy. A menu bar at the top of the screen offers access to program options such as assumptions, worksheets, client letters, and other functions. The toolbar below provides fast access to basic system functions such as save, print, open, along with options to hide, display, or move columns.

Unlike many other tax planning products, BNA Income Tax Planner offers tax law for all 50 states, along with non-resident tax status for AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MS, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, UT, VA, VT, and WV.

BNA Income Tax Planner can easily handle any tax filing status, and can prepare up to 20 years of tax planning scenarios, including both future and past years, with calculations able to go as far back as 1987, making it an excellent tool for clients who are undergoing IRS audits. Along with the standard federal and state tax planning calculations, BNA Income Tax Planner can also handle estate and tax calculations, the kiddie tax calculation, estimated tax payments for self-employed and investment income, farm income averaging, stock option and investment planning, and retirement planning and back tax filing. Additional built in features include automatic system calculations including limitations and phase-outs, carryovers, foreign housing deductions, and calculations for expenses.

Enter information specific to your client including name, city and state, number of cases to analyze, first year of analysis, and non-resident status if applicable. Once this is completed, you’ll begin entering information on the main worksheet including tax filing status, personal exemptions, and income and withholding information. Numerous sub-menus are displayed in the ‘Explorer-style’ menu to the left of the main worksheet. Double click on a sub-menu option to display and enter relevant data. All information entered into the sub-worksheets easily flows back to the main worksheet, ensuring that your totals are accurate at all times. The ‘Watch Window’ allows you to display the worksheet items of your choice in a window displayed at the bottom of the main screen.

REPORTING -