Whether it computes a real projection or scores a strategy list. A projection has to carry AMT, net investment income tax, QBI phase-outs, the excess business loss limitation and at least one state. Practitioners have reported Corvee missing the excess business loss limit, which is exactly the kind of error that turns a savings estimate into a fee dispute.
Accounting Tools · Tax Planning & Advisory
Tax Planning & Advisory software for accounting firms
Software that projects a client's tax liability under different assumptions and turns the result into a written plan the firm can charge for.
13 tools compared
3 rated Top Pick
3 with a SOC 2 report
7 publish a price
The landscape
Who buys tax planning and advisory software, and when
The owner buys it, and usually buys it as part of a decision to sell advisory work rather than as a technical upgrade. The trigger is the first time the firm wants to invoice $2,500 or more for a planning engagement instead of handing out projections free with the return, which typically happens in firms of 3 to 20 staff that have run out of room to raise compliance fees.
At 13 products this is the 6th largest of 12 categories, 6.7% of the directory.
Across the 13: 3 Top Pick, 3 Strong Option, 6 One to Watch, 1 Dated.
Buyer's guide
What actually separates tax planning and advisory tools
How much of the return it can read. Holistiplan built its reputation on OCR of a 1040 PDF in seconds; other tools import directly from Lacerte, ProConnect or UltraTax. If it does neither, someone in your firm re-keys a return for every plan, and that cost is the real price of the software.
Whether state tax is included or a separate line. Corvee's published tiers run about $10,000 a year federal-only and about $15,000 with state. Multi-state clients are precisely the ones planning is worth selling to, so federal-only pricing usually is not the price.
Whether you can compare scenarios side by side. Year-end planning is a comparison problem: exercise $1M, $2M or $3M of options, or convert this much Roth. Tools built around one plan per client at a time make that awkward.
What the client actually receives. A planning fee is defended by the deliverable, so look at a real output PDF with your own firm's branding on it, and check that the numbers in the narrative match the numbers in the schedules.
What you already own. Intuit Tax Advisor comes with Lacerte and ProConnect at no extra charge and produces a branded, client-ready plan. Any paid tool needs to be better than that, not merely better than nothing.
Our picks
Where we would start
Holistiplan
Firms doing tax reviews for clients whose returns were prepared elsewhere, or on tax software with no planning module
from $749/year
Intuit Tax Advisor
Firms already filing 1040s in Lacerte or ProConnect that want a client-facing plan without re-keying the return
from $599/year
RCReports
Firms with a book of S corp clients where officer compensation is a live audit and penalty exposure
from $1,500/year
Side by side
Tax Planning & Advisory compared
| Tool | Rating | From | SOC 2 | MFA | Ledgers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holistiplan | Top Pick | $749/year | — | — | — |
| Intuit Tax Advisor | Top Pick | $599/year | — | — | — |
| RCReports | Top Pick | $1,500/year | — | — | — |
| BNA Income Tax Planner | Strong Option | On request | — | — | — |
| Corvee | Strong Option | On request | — | — | — |
| TaxPlanIQ | Strong Option | $397/month | No | — | — |
| Hazel | One to Watch | $150/seat/month | Type 1 | Yes | — |
| Instead | One to Watch | $30/credit | Type 2 | Yes | — |
| Luminary | One to Watch | On request | Type 2 | — | — |
| Ready to Advise | One to Watch | On request | — | — | — |
| Tax Maverick | One to Watch | On request | No | — | — |
| Tax Planner Pro | One to Watch | $49/month | — | — | LedgerHQ |
| Planner CS | Dated | On request | — | — | — |
A dash means we could not confirm it from public sources, not that the answer is no. Captured September 8, 2026.
The full list
All 13 tax planning & advisory tools
Grouped by how we would shortlist them for a US accounting or bookkeeping firm. How these ratings are decided.
Top Pick (3)
What we would shortlist first in this category: proven with real firms, actively developed, and priced and integrated in a way that suits a US accounting or bookkeeping practice.
Holistiplan
OCR reads a 1040 PDF and returns a client-ready tax observations report
Holistiplan
Intuit Tax Advisor
Tax planning built into Lacerte and ProConnect at no separate charge
Intuit
RCReports
Reasonable compensation reports for S corp owner-employees, with the methodology documented
RCReports
Strong Option (3)
A credible choice that wins on a specific fit rather than across the board — a price point, a niche, a workflow, or an integration the top picks do not cover as well.
BNA Income Tax Planner
Multi-year federal, state and nonresident projection engine for complex individual returns
Bloomberg Tax
Corvee
Multi-entity tax planning with a large strategy library and branded client plans
Instead
TaxPlanIQ
Strategy library, ROI-based fee proposal and branded plan built from an uploaded 1040
TaxPlanIQ
One to Watch (6)
Early or unproven at firm scale. Often genuinely interesting technology without the track record, support depth, or install base to bet a busy season on yet.
Hazel
AI tax planning agent built by Altruist and sold to financial advisors, not accounting firms
Altruist
Instead
AI tax platform combining planning, preparation and e-filing, billed by credits consumed
Instead
Luminary
Reads trust and estate documents and turns them into flowcharts and estate tax models
Luminary
Ready to Advise
Thomson Reuters advisory tool that ranks planning strategies from an uploaded return
Thomson Reuters
Tax Maverick
Advisory training program with strategy-matching software attached, sold by application
Tax Maverick
Tax Planner Pro
Low-cost projection engine covering AMT, NIIT, QBI, IRMAA and all 50 states
Tax Planner Pro
Dated (1)
Still sold and still working, but no longer keeping pace — thin investment, an aging interface, or a roadmap that has visibly stalled. Fine to stay on, hard to recommend adopting.
Planner CS
Multi-year federal and state projection software sold inside the CS Professional Suite
Thomson Reuters
Reading this list
What the category does and does not tell you
Categories here follow how firms buy, not how vendors market themselves, and the boundaries are genuinely soft: practice management overlaps close automation, tax workflow overlaps document automation, and several products are sold into two of these at once. Where that happens the tool keeps one page and appears on both category pages. Treat the grouping as a way to navigate, not as a market segmentation.
Prices, certifications, and integrations are researched from vendor sources and dated on each profile. The ratings and the comparisons built on them are Node8's.
FAQ
Tax Planning & Advisory questions, answered
How much does tax planning software cost?
The range is wide. Holistiplan lists tiers in roughly the $1,500 to $3,000 a year range with caps on how many returns you can scan. Corvee sits at about $10,000 a year federal-only and about $15,000 with state. TaxPlanIQ prices per plan rather than per seat, and Intuit Tax Advisor is bundled with Lacerte and ProConnect. Work out your cost per plan at the number of plans you will realistically sell in year one, not the number you hope to sell in year three.
Is Holistiplan built for CPA firms or for financial advisors?
It was designed for financial advisors, and it shows. The core motion is scanning a client's 1040 and producing a readable tax summary that starts a conversation, which is very useful for an advisor who does not prepare returns and less differentiating for a firm that already has the return in front of it. CPA firms tend to buy it for prospecting and for the client-facing report, and look elsewhere for deep multi-year modeling.
Do I need this if my tax software already has a planner?
Not necessarily. Lacerte and ProConnect include Intuit Tax Advisor, which projects federal and state tax, applies a library of strategies and produces a client-ready report at no additional cost. UltraTax and Drake have planners too, though the output is designed for internal use rather than for a client. Run one real client through what you already own before you shop, because the honest comparison is against the free tool, not against a spreadsheet.
Will the software let me charge advisory fees?
The software produces a document. It does not produce the willingness to price differently, and firms that buy a planning tool without changing how they scope and quote work usually let the subscription lapse in year two. The tools that help most on the commercial side, such as TaxPlanIQ with its ROI-based plan pricing, are helping you justify a number to a client. You still have to say the number out loud.
Keep browsing
Other categories
Practice Management (49)General Ledger & Bookkeeping (26)Tax Workflow & Document Automation (26)Payroll & PEO (19)Tax Preparation (18)Tax Research (13)Month-End Close Automation (11)Proposals & Engagement Letters (9)Spreadsheet Reporting & Ledger Sync (6)Tax Resolution & IRS Representation (6)AI Meeting Assistants (5)
The tools are only half of it
Buying the software is the easy part. Node8 builds the automation and AI layer between the systems a firm already pays for, so intake, document work, and review stop eating the busy season.