Best Tax Planning Software for Small to Medium Business

Tax planning involves implementing strategies to reduce tax liabilities for businesses and individuals by optimizing tax deductions, and identifying tax-saving opportunities.

While implementing tax planning strategies leads to valuable tax savings, it does involve a lot of research and data entry work that requires keen attention to detail. Manually working on them, especially towards the end of tax season, may increase the chances of errors leading to fines and less tax savings.

Tax planning software simplifies the process by capturing data as your transactions happen across revenues or expenditures and accurately calculates taxes as per the latest regulations. Using these potential tax numbers, the software further helps strategically organize finances to minimize tax liabilities and improve financial efficiency.

The Geekflare team has researched and listed the best Tax Planning Software to help your business tap into tax planning opportunities in real-time.

• Intuit ProConnect Tax – Provides Inbuilt Tax Advisory
• Bonsai – Best for Freelancers
• Drake Tax – For Professional Tax Preparers
• UltraTax CS – Best for Tax Preparation
• TaxWise – Best for Small to Medium Businesses
• Corvee Tax Planning – Best for Multi-Entity Planning
• Holistiplan – Best for Financial Advisors
• Tax Planner Pro – Best for Accountants
• TaxPlanIQ – Best for Accounting Firms
• Bloomberg Tax – Best for Corporate Tax Strategy
• Show moreShow less

Intuit ProConnect Tax

Intuit ProConnect Tax is a cloud-based professional tax software designed for accountants and tax professionals to streamline the execution of their tax planning strategy. Its tax strategy engine, Lacerte, uses automation and advanced tools to handle complex tax returns and scenarios.

Its direct integration with Intuit’s QuickBooks Online Accountant makes it a complete package for implementing effective tax strategies. It also provides in-built tax advisory services that help centralize information and design custom tax plans and reports.

Intuit ProConnect Features

• Direct access to IRS transcripts: Access IRS communications directly within the software. It enhances accuracy and reduces the need for back-and-forth with clients.
• Customizable client letters: Streamline client communication by triggering the sending of customizable letter templates based on keyword prompts.
• Streamline data capture: Use in-built data import automation like importing W-2 data using employer’s EIN, CSV imports, 1099, K-1 import, client portal for capturing data from clients, and more.
• Multi-LLC filing: Centralize the tax planning process for clients with multiple businesses. Also allows setting up roles and permissions.
• Built-in tax advisory insights: Use tax advisory to design effective tax strategies based on client data.

Intuit ProConnect Pricing

Intuit ProConnect offers 3 pricing plans – Essential, Plus, and Advanced. These include varying limits for filing individual and business returns, eSignatures, and user access. The pricing for these plans is available on request.

Intuit ProConnect Tax software also allows per-return pricing, where Individual returns are priced at $99.95 per return and Business returns at $119.95 per return.

Explore Intuit ProConnect Tax

Bonsai

Bonsai provides the best tax planning software for self-employed professionals like freelancers or contractors. It centralizes your expense tracking and categorizes them to simplify taxes and identify tax planning opportunities.

It connects directly with the bank account to identify any potential tax write-offs that could lead to valuable savings. Bonsai also includes comprehensive invoicing features; thus it offers complete financial planning software for independent workers.

Bonsai Features

• Import and sync expenses: Avoid manual data entry as Bonsai connects to bank accounts and credit cards to automatically import transactions.
• Supports quarterly tax filing: Freelancers can stay compliant with tax regulations throughout the year using Bonsai’s automated quarterly tax return estimates.
• Organize tax receipts: Automatically categorize receipts for easy access during tax season.
• Financial reports: Visualize profit, loss, expense, and tax savings to make informed financial decisions.
• Reminders: Get notified about filing dates and upcoming estimated tax payments.

Bonsai Pricing

Plan	Monthly Price	Offerings
Starter	$21	Allows expense tracking. Bonsai Tax add-on at extra $10/month to get a complete basic plan for tax planning.
Professional	$32	Remove Bonsai branding, workflow automation, and Quickbooks integration.
Business	$66	Subcontractor management, reporting, and premium support.
Scale	Contact Sales	Advanced integrations, custom roles, and dedicated support.

Explore Bonsai

Drake Tax

Drake Software provides comprehensive tax planning and e-filing tools for busy tax professionals. It aims to become their productive working ‘hub’ that enables them to deliver exceptional service to their clients.

It offers its tax planning software on desktop and cloud. Drake’s software for accounting, client portals, and payment offers complete financial planning software to execute tax planning strategies.

Drake Tax Features

• The Tax Book: Their award-winning tax research product to get schedule or form information on demand.
• Dynamic autofill: Save time in entering data by fetching information on various forms using the EIN database.
• Analyze tax scenarios: Perform robust tax planning by creating scenarios, comparing filing options, and optimizing to achieve valuable savings.
• Drake portals: Capture confidential client data and share files using a secure custom website.
• E-Filing capabilities: Users can e-file returns directly through the platform, reducing paperwork and expediting the filing process.

Drake Tax Pricing

Drake Tax offers a pay-per-return pricing at $349.99 which includes 10 returns for a single user. For unlimited returns, the below products are offered.

Product	Single Purchase Price	Offerings
Drake Tax 1040	$1,675 for a single user and $1,875 for unlimited users	File individual tax returns
Drake Tax Pro	$2,045 for single users and $2,345 for unlimited	File unlimited 1120, 1120-S, 1120-H, 1065, 1041, 990, and 706 tax returns

Note: You must purchase cloud hosting for Drake Tax software at $99/user.

Try Drake Tax Software

UltraTax CS

UltraTax CS by Thomson Reuters is a tax preparation software that improves productivity and helps plan for tax implications. It offers access to an extensive range of forms and worksheets for local, state, and federal tax returns. These are equipped with advanced diagnostics to clear issues and data mining-based search tools to identify tax advisory opportunities.

Such features help tax professionals effectively manage various client scenarios, including multi-entity planning. Further, it provides access to tax solutions from partners to enhance workflows across data scans, client collaboration, cryptocurrency tax filing, and more.

UltraTax CS Features

• International tax calculator: Allows instant import and export of data. One can navigate international taxation and ever-changing laws by performing scenario-based tax planning.
• Dynamic diagnostics: Improve accuracy where the pre-submission automated diagnostics flag any missing values or inconsistencies in tax returns.
• Tax automation: Enter data once into a client’s return and the software automatically populates all relevant fields in other returns.
• Additional tax tools: Provides features for staff and project management to handle clients efficiently.
• Data-driven insights: Identify advisory and tax planning opportunities using their search tool to help clients navigate regulatory or service changes.

UltraTax CS Pricing

UntraTax CS provides both unlimited licenses and a per-return filing price – contact their sales team for custom pricing.

Explore UltraTax CS

TaxWise

TaxWise aims to provide a ‘virtual tax office’ to streamline tax planning activities for clients and improve service delivery.

TaxWise includes live refund monitoring, a client portal, integrated e-signatures, and bilingual support. It provides a cloud-based web, mobile, and desktop app to enable you to work anywhere and anytime.

TaxWise Features

• Live refund monitor: With instant updates, users can track client refunds in real-time.
• Spanish support: Access 60 schedules and forms in Spanish language.
• Cloud document storage: Securely store client documents online, allowing easy access and organization while ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.
• Refund transfers: Enable taxpayers to cover their tax preparation costs using their anticipated tax refund.
• E-signature: The software sends reminders, allows e-signing, and tracks completion. This simplifies the process and ensures compliance on time.

TaxWise Pricing

TaxWise provides a no-commitment forever free trial using which you can prepare 5 tax returns without e-filing them. Request a quote to purchase paid plans by contacting the TaxWise sales team.

Explore TaxWise

Corvee Tax Planning

Corvee provides tax planning software that supports 1500+ tax strategies across state and federal level taxation.

Using its smart questionnaire feature, you can tailor these strategies to your client’s requirements and instantly prepare a case. It comes with dedicated features to handle multi-entity tax planning.

Corvee Tax Planning Features

• Create tax proposals: Create custom tax plans with custom branding unique to your client’s needs.
• Smart questionnaires: Use intelligent questionnaires across ‘identification’, ‘qualification’, and ‘calculation’ stages that adapt based on client responses to collect client data.
• Multi-entity analysis: Users can understand how changes in one entity affect others, making it ideal for handling tax planning for businesses with complex structures.
• Customizable templates: Use pre-built templates for retirement planning, tax planning, tax-advantaged wealth management, and more. You can also custom-build your templates.
• Client portal: Use a mobile-optimized client portal for engagement and document management.

Corvee Tax Planning Pricing

Corvee provides a demo of its tax planning software and custom quotes – contact their sales team to learn more.

Explore Corvee

Holistiplan

Holistiplan is an award-winning tax planning software that assists financial advisors gain insights into the tax situation and perform scenario analysis for tax planning strategy. For this, it uses its advanced OCR technology to scan tax returns to generate clear, client-friendly reports highlighting key tax planning opportunities.

It also provides tax planning workflows for estate planning and insurance risk management. This is beneficial for tax professionals who want to consider assets and insurance for tax planning in a single platform.

Holistiplan Features

• Tax reporting: Generate custom branded reports by scanning tax returns in bulk in 45 seconds.
• Auto-update compliance: Aligns with changes in tax laws so that financial advisors have the latest information for accurate tax planning.
• Scenario analysis: Financial advisors can create personalized models of their tax implications, such as Roth conversions and capital gains. Its dynamic capabilities allow for precise projections in less time.
• Insurance risk management tool: Assess clients’ auto, home, and umbrella insurance coverage. It identifies gaps and provides personalized tax planning recommendations.
• Estate planning: Handles estate documentation and provides asset diagrams for effective tax planning.

Holistiplan Pricing

Holistiplan provides a 7-day free trial for any of their paid subscription plans.

Plan	Annual Price	Offerings
Basic	$749	Unlimited users, scenario analysis, generate tax reports with 30 uploads per year.
Premium	$1,699	Advanced scenario analysis, cash flow visualizer, and tax explainer with 75 uploads per year.
Premium Plus	$3,199	Access to an insurance management tool with 150 uploads per year.

For more than 150 uploads, there are additional slab-based charges.

Explore Holistiplan

Tax Planner Pro

Tax Planner Pro is a tax planning software focusing on bookkeeping and accounting workflows for tax preparation. Using its tax strategy AI-powered engine, IVAN, it automates the generation of tax projections, including for businesses with multiple entities.

Accountants and tax professionals can sync with accounting software like Xero and QuickBooks. It has a user-friendly interface and simplifies tax planning, allowing users to generate customized tax plans based on real-time financial data.

Tax Planner Pro Features

• Tax plan simulator: Accountants can experiment with various tax strategies and see how different scenarios impact tax returns.
• IVAN AI engine: Analyzes financial data to recommend the best tax strategies tailored to each client’s situation.
• Sync with Hydra: Helps showcase consolidated tax returns and projections for multiple entities with different business types.
• Custom reporting: Provides professional-looking branded reports for your clients.
• Integrations: Sync and fetch data from accounting or financial planning software like QuickBooks and Xero for streamlined accounting and tax planning.

Tax Planner Pro Pricing

Plan	Annual Price	Offerings
Bookkeeper	$299	Access tax plan simulator and basic reporting for up to 25 clients.
Tax CPA	$1,299	Advanced reporting, tax strategy module, and priority support for unlimited clients.
Lifetime	$3,999 (no renewal)	Forever access to the Tax CPA plan for unlimited clients with free software updates.

Explore Tax Planner Pro

TaxPlanIQ

TaxPlanIQ provides the best tax planning software to help small or medium accounting firms streamline their complete client engagement for tax advisory. This includes proposal creation to implementation and helping visualize ROI in a single platform.

TaxPlanIQ also provides collaboration features for accounting firms and clients to work together on creating custom tax plans. The whole system is powered by jAIne (based on ChatGPT) which further helps firms use data for tax planning strategy.

TaxPlanIQ Features

• Manage client engagement: Brings tax planning operations in a single platform via integrations and automation.
• jAIne for data analytics: Evaluate tax plan to advise on improvement, handle tax queries, and get a second opinion on tax strategy.
• Visualize ROI: Provides vivid visual representations of the monetary benefits derived from tax planning strategies for client conversion.
• Proposal templates: Customize ready-to-use templates, worksheets, and questionnaires as per client requirements.
• Collaborate with teams: Use a task list and shared workspace to work with your accounting firm on custom tax plans in real-time.

TaxPlanIQ Pricing

Plan	Annual Pricing	Offerings
Basic	$4,047	1 user can prepare 12 tax plans per year with access to the dashboard, tax strategy hub,jAIne AI Tax Planning Assistant, training resources, and more.
Standard	$7,109 + $35 for additional user	2 users can prepare unlimited tax plans with access to the client portal, cash flow timeline, and complimentary enhanced implementation valued at $750 value.
Growth	$10,169 + $20 for additional user	5 users can prepare unlimited tax plans with access to premium support, growth program events, and beta features.

Try TaxPlanIQ

Bloomberg Tax

Bloomberg Tax provides access to 200+ tax management portfolios to optimize research and tax planning. It offers tax planning products across various categories of businesses like large and mid-sized corporations, research, advisory, asset management, and more – leading to an interconnected experience for organizations of any size.

Bloomberg Tax Features

• Corporate tax analyzer: Its advanced ASC 740 calculation engine reduces human errors and helps adhere to current regulations while performing multi-year, complex tax calculations.
• AI-powered answers: Helps research to find the latest laws or regulations as you work on your custom tax plans.
• Real-time tax law updates: Receive timely updates on changes in tax laws so that users can adjust their tax planning strategy accordingly.
• Automate data transformation: Prepare work papers with automated tax law updates and data sync as you work on the dedicated spreadsheets for tax planning.
• Asset management: Save taxes on fixed assets with Bloomberg’s asset depreciation software.

Bloomberg Tax Pricing

You can request a free demo with Bloomberg Tax to learn more about their pricing plans. Upon booking the demo, you will receive a complimentary tax management portfolio.

Try Bloomberg Tax

What is Tax Accounting Software?

Tax Accounting Software integrates and automates accounting and tax planning workflows to enable users to implement effective tax strategies. This includes automating the tax planning process, tracking expenses, and ensuring compliance with tax laws.

Compared to accounting software, tax accounting software considers tax planning-related tasks to provide depth to how you perform tax management. These specialized tasks include automated tax calculations, real-time updates on tax regulations, and tools for preparing and filing tax returns.

Thus, if your business is exposed to complex or heavy tax regulations, opting for tax accounting software would make more sense.

Typical features to consider when choosing tax accounting software include:

1. Expense tracking to categorize and organize expenses throughout the year. This makes it easier to identify deductible items when preparing tax returns.
2. Calculate taxes automatically by applying current tax rates and strategies for tax savings. This reduces the risk of human error.
3. Instant compliance updates on local, state, and federal regulations to ensure accurate tax calculations.
4. Tax reporting tools to get insights into tax liabilities and potential deductions. This aids in strategic financial planning to design effective tax strategies.
5. E-Filing capabilities to save time and reduce paperwork.

What are the benefits of using Tax Planning Software?

Tax planning software primarily helps you align your dynamic business operations with tax regulations. This helps you stay prepared for tax filing ahead of time.

Here is how this helps streamline your business’s accounting and taxation workflows.

Automate tax calculations

As business complexity increases, like with multi-entity corporations, it becomes unmanageable to calculate taxes. Tax planning software simplifies this complexity by giving visibility into how the automated calculations work, alerting on empty fields, or making recommendations for optimizing the calculation.

For example, a user can simply fetch expense data from bank account statements and input this into the tax planning software. The software will automatically calculate the total tax owed based on the latest tax rates – thus avoiding manual work.

Such automated tax calculations minimize the risk of human error and ensure accurate results.

Tax estimation

Estimating taxes helps individuals or companies prepare for tax liabilities before tax authorities provide the official amount. It gives tax professionals enough time to help you strategize to avail valuable savings.

For example, let’s say a freelancer anticipates a significant increase in income due to a new contract. The tax planning software estimates the additional taxes owed. This enables them to set aside funds accordingly to avoid surprises during tax season.

Align tax planning with up-to-date tax laws

When selecting a tax planning software, ensure it provides dedicated features to update their tax calculation algorithms with changes in tax regulations.

This ensures that users are always compliant and aware of any new deductions or credits available. It can also help avoid potential fines due to, for example, changes in submission dates.

For example, let’s say, a new set of tax laws is introduced for remote organizations. The tax planning software will consider these changes and make provisions within the software to modify tax calculations. This saves time for the user to research these changes themselves.

Integration with accounting software

Direct integration with accounting software saves efforts in sharing or migrating expense data. This simple step helps avoid duplicates, maintains consistency, and reduces errors associated with data migration.

From our list, consider tax planning software like Drake, UltraTax CS, Tax Planner Pro, and Bloomberg Tax that provide dedicated integration with accounting software or such features as a part of its product suite.

Perform scenario analysis

To determine the best and most effective tax strategy for the use case, one has to perform multiple ‘what if’ scenarios as simulations. Small decisions of shifting numbers here and there can result in massive changes, especially for multi-entity tax planning.

For such complex scenario analysis, tax planning software is a must.

For example, let’s say a business owner considers purchasing new equipment. Performing scenario analysis will help determine projections on how this investment will affect their taxable income. Advanced tax planning software with access to real-time data can simulate different scenarios based on varying purchase prices and financing options.

Such complex tax calculations require tax planning software. From our list, you can consider Intuit ProConnect Tax, Drake, UltraTax CS, Holistiplan, and Tax Planner Pro for dedicated scenario analysis tools.

How to choose the right Tax Planning Software?

While tax planning software like Bonsai is suitable for freelancers, the ones like Bloomberg Tax may be too expensive for small businesses. Thus, you must give careful thought to choosing the right tax planning software – otherwise, it would be a lot of additional data migration work to deal with.

Identify your need according to business size and type

Most tax planning software in our list has focused on specific use cases or targeted a certain size of business as their market. This simplifies your search as all you need to do now is to categorize your business size (small, medium, or enterprise) and type.

For example, a small business would not require multi-entity planning or reporting features and can avoid purchasing pricing plans that cover it.

Features to look for like automated calculations, scenario planning, and integration

Another criterion to narrow down your tax planning software choice is to consider what problems your current tax management workflows face. Is your business losing sight of tax-saving opportunities? Or are your accountants making errors due to your company’s rapid expansion efforts?

You can prepare a table to determine the required features, here’s an example scenario:

Problem	Current solution	Automation workflow	Features to implement this automation
Business involves frequent travel for work.	Spreadsheet and Forms to submit expenses.	Sync bank or credit card transactions to register expenses as they happen. Track mileage to calculate tax deductions.	1. Mileage tracking 2. Integrations 3. Bank feed 4. Expense tracking 5. Access to local tax laws across travel locations 6. Scenario analysis based on route planning

In the above example, the business must prioritize tax preparation software with robust expense-tracking features. This would ensure they capture all deductible travel expenses accurately.

Budget for business

Lastly, your tax planning budget is critical to determining the return on investment for your chosen software. One must consider potential tax savings when investing in good tax planning software.

It is not just about affordability – having clarity on pricing structures is also important.

• If your business has fewer transactions or entities, you can opt for pay per return pricing model.
• Software like Bloomberg Tax, Corvee Tax Planning, UltraTax CS, and Intuit ProConnect Tax provide custom pricing. This may prove more beneficial in the long run as they charge for features used.
• TaxWise offers a free plan, ideal for businesses looking to test the tax planning features for their tax management.

5 Best Practices for Effective Tax Planning

Adopting the five measures below will equip you to make better tax planning decisions and identify tax planning opportunities.

1. Start early

Make tax planning a core part of your tax management workflows – right from when you start your business and beginning of the year. This gives you enough time to thoroughly review your financial situation to test potential tax strategies.

For example, consider the government launches a new scheme under which startups can avail of tax benefits. But that requires document submission and approvals that can take 3 months. Knowing this and working for it towards the year-end would not give you enough time to benefit from such schemes.

2. Keep detailed records

Your business needs to become proactive in maintaining its receipts, invoices, bank statements, and any documentation related to deductions or credits. For this, tax planning software with expense tracking features or accounting integration can help.

Then, one has to simply feed this data for tax calculations, reducing the time taken and errors.

3. Understand tax laws and changes

Tax regulations can often change frequently as the government changes. This impacts deductions, credits, and overall tax liability.

Choose tax planning software that offers real-time access to databases and news about tax laws. It helps adapt tax strategies in response to new legislation, ensuring compliance and maximizing available benefits.

For example, Intuit ProConnect Tax and Bloomberg Tax are mature tax planning software that includes such tax law update automation in their calculation algorithms.

4. Use tax-efficient investments

Investing in tax-efficient vehicles can significantly reduce taxable income.

Options such as retirement accounts (e.g., 401(k)s or IRAs) allow individuals tax-efficient withdrawals, potentially lowering overall tax liabilities. For this, it is important to choose tax planning software that includes retirement planning features, like, Drake Tax, UltraTax CS, Corvee Tax Planning, TaxPlanIQ, and Bloomberg Tax.

Other tricks include managing capital gains, like opting for index funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that typically have lower turnover rates. One can also offset capital gains by selling underperforming investments at a loss. This strategy can reduce taxable income and improve overall portfolio performance.

5. Conduct regular reviews

Regularly reviewing your financials helps detect issues and plan better for taxes. Tax planning software helps implement this proactive approach to tax management.

For example, a field service management company can conduct quarterly review meetings with a financial advisor to assess their travel spending patterns. This would help them evaluate, put a cap, or increase spending based on their tax strategy.

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