
        DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT TAX SEASON IS COMING!
        
        The end of the year means the beginning of the income tax 
        season, and April 15th will roll around before you know it. 
        There are many valuable online resources for tax information 
        and help that will assist both accounting professionals and 
        laymen alike, and they're as close as your modem and your 
        home PC.
        
        PHINet is a professional database, targeted at accounting 
        firms, law firms that specialize in tax issues and, believe 
        it or not, the IRS itself, which is PHINet's biggest 
        customer. 
        
        The service offers daily tax news, analysis, and commentary, 
        plus more than 30 different tax-related data bases that 
        include past tax court decisions, information on various 
        state and local tax laws, and other assistance.
        
        The price is not cheap--$100/hr, a $50 monthly service fee, 
        plus a one-time signup fee of $1200. But for professionals 
        in need of timely and accurate information to help clients 
        prepare their tax returns, the value for the money cannot be 
        topped.
        
        For information on PHINet, contact Prentice-Hall Information 
        Network, One Gulf & Western Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10023-
        7774, (212) 373-8600.
        
        THE TAX DIRECTORY is a different kind of tax database, since 
        its primarily an electronic "phone book" of names, addresses 
        and phone numbers of every federal, state, and local 
        taxation agency in the nation, plus those of officials, 
        courts, judges, journalists who specialize in tax issues, 
        and special interest groups and private individuals. A 
        virtual online "who's who" of taxation, it is available via 
        the Lexis and Westlaw legal online services (about which PC 
        Life will have more next issue), as well as NewsNet.
        
        For more information about The Tax Directory, contact Tax 
        Analysts, 6830 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, 22213, (800) 
        336-0439.
        
        For less professional tax questions, seek out the financial 
        assistance areas of such major systems as CompuServe, 
        Delphi, the Source, etc. and be on the lookout for special 
        events geared to tax time as well.
        
        For example, last year one service had a live "call-in" 
        discussion online with an IRS administrator and a noted tax 
        accountant. The Online community is your resource for 
        valuable information. USE IT, and maybe you won't be 
        dreading April 15th's arrival quite as much as you used to.