Many law firms and their clients use Wolters Kluwer’s software solutions. One such solution is ADDISON OneClick. Anyone wishing to deal with the property tax reform now needs software that has a compatible interface. This Property tax software It is available from hsp and has been operational for weeks. It is now being used successfully by hundreds of law firms. hsp’s Paul Liese and Sven Husemann from Wolters Kluwer Germany have explained exactly how the interface with ADDISON works in Opti.Tax Grundsteuer.

Sven Husemann is reporting from the beautiful Wendland region. He is Lead Product Manager at Wolters Kluwer Germany. Wolters Kluwer operates worldwide as a service provider and supplier of specialist information, software and services, including for tax advisers and auditors. On the German market, the ADDISON, Akte and SBS solutions are particularly well known. Together with hsp, Wolters Kluwer aims to tackle the property tax reform. To this end, the two companies are collaborating to develop solutions that will benefit law firms and their clients.

What is Sven’s view on the property tax reform? Was the preparation period long enough for those involved, and were the framework conditions clear? Sven can’t help but smile a little. Anyone who has already looked into the subject of property tax knows the answer. There are enormous challenges to overcome, and the implementation of the reform is proving anything but smooth. From the software manufacturers’ perspective, Sven highlights the hurdles that development departments are currently having to overcome. But the tax authorities, too, are realising just how many issues still need to be resolved.

There is still a lot to do

Sven then turns his attention to the law firms. There are a few of them that, as early as last year, have been working intensively on the property tax reform. Others – as Sven sees it – are only just now beginning to prepare for the issue. In his 20 years at Wolters Kluwer, he has never come across a more challenging topic. In two weeks’ time, Paul has a meeting with a law firm that only intends to address the substance of the property tax reform for the first time then. However, whilst the e-balance sheet was allowed to take a whole year longer under the ‘no-objection’ rule, this is not to be expected with the property tax reform. Sven keeps hearing that many law firms and experts expect there to be some sort of deadline extension for property tax as well. However, he states quite clearly that this is not to be expected.

We will now move on to a presentation of how ADDISON and Opti.Tax work together. Wolters Kluwer offers two solutions for tax consultancy firms: ADDISON and Akte. What follows is possible with both products. Many of Wolters Kluwer’s clients wish to deal with the issue of property tax reform using the hsp solution Opti.Tax Grundsteuer. Even though this involves using an external product, Wolters Kluwer believes this should be made possible. The presentation therefore begins with the ADDISON software. The aim was to make the master data from the software available to Opti.Tax Grundsteuer.

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ADDISON starting point with seamless integration

To demonstrate, Sven opens an income tax return in ADDISON. This contains data for three properties that can be used for the property tax return. To do this, a new property tax project is created for the client in ADDISON. The master data is then prepared for export. This includes all the necessary data, such as property details, personal information and tax advisory details. All data that has already been entered can be made available. The exception is data relating to fixed assets, as this is often inaccurate and of questionable quality. However, the aim here is not to create an export file, as this would result in a change of medium. This is where the in-house portal, OneClick, comes in.

ADDISON OneClick was originally launched to bring law firms and clients closer together. The portal makes data entry easier. It is therefore ideally suited to providing data for property tax software. To do this, click the „Export Property Tax“ button in the application. The data is now in the portal and ready for further processing. Sven emphasises that this data can only be accessed by the law firm. Whilst OneClick is a portal for clients, it can also be used for such internal law firm processes. For demonstration purposes, Sven has created a staff account for Paul on ADDISON OneClick.

Seamless transition to Opti.Tax Property Tax

Cut to Paul, who is using the upcoming Opti.Tax version 22.0.7 on his demo computer. This version is not yet available, as it is currently still under development, but will be released soon. Paul creates a client. The client number can now be entered in the „ADDISON OneClick“ field. Clicking on the magnifying glass opens the browser and an ADDISON page appears. The ADDISON subdomain (beispiel@portal-bereich.de) must be entered here. This is followed by the login section, where the login details for the employee account must be entered.

Back in Opti.Tax, all clients that have been approved and stored in ADDISON OneClick for this account are displayed. Paul now selects the example client and creates the client record. A name is assigned when the project is set up, after which the practice software is scanned. As expected, Opti.Tax identifies the three properties recorded for the example client. All relevant data previously stored in ADDISON is now displayed in the Opti.Tax property tax module. The remaining missing data can now be entered.

Further improvements on the way

There are further plans for the future. Sven explains that, going forward, everything that follows the declaration of findings is to be properly stored and archived at the practice. To this end, the interface is to be continuously expanded over the coming weeks. If a law firm does not wish to bill based on the value of the matter, it can also bill on a time-based basis. The value of the matter is always displayed for comparison, so that the person working on the case always has it in mind. Furthermore, however, each client can be managed on an individual basis.

Paul sums up by saying that the property tax reform demands maximum agility from all those involved. What has always been the norm at hsp is now also required of the tax authorities, law firms and clients. Solutions such as the ADDISON OneClick interface help many tax advisers to guide their clients efficiently and accurately through the property tax reform.