| Website
of the Month: WillYancey.com
By
Susan B. Anders
Will
Yancey, PhD, CPA, is well known to accounting educators
as an early adopter of Internet technology. As he has moved
from a full-time academic career to consulting, his website
(www.willyancey.com)
has changed to reflect his evolving interest in state and
local tax resources, with particular emphasis on sales,
use, excise, and property taxes. The site also includes
many offerings of a more general interest, such as links
to income tax resources, financial data, Internet and computer
resources, and general reference information.
The
homepage presents an index of links to accounting, tax,
finance, law, and general business websites. Although the
topics are similar to those on other websites, willyancey.com
introduces many links and other resources that will be new
to most users. The website relies on connections to an independent
Tax and Accounting Sites Directory (www.taxsites.com,
reviewed in December 2002) for many of the general accounting
and income tax resources.
New
users should be warned: This website has many positive attributes,
but appearance is not one of them. The homepage and main
webpages are organized in an index-style format. The heading
of each main page has a bold-print, large-font title. Directly
under the title is Yancey’s contact information, a
link back to the homepage, and an e-mail hyperlink to Yancey.
The resources available from a particular page are organized
under bold-print topic headings. The homepage presents the
subtopics in one continuous line of text that is a bit cramped
and requires some effort to read. The subsidiary pages are
more visually appealing, with the topics presented in bulleted
lists. Links to “related web pages at this website”
are noted on each main page.
Areas
of Focus
The
main focus of willyancey.com can be found in the first line
of links on the homepage: local sales, use, and transaction
taxes; state sales, use, and excise taxes; technology for
tax practice; and property tax and appraisal records. The
importance of this “main menu” is somewhat obscured
by the innocuous configuration. Below the initial text line
of links are other topic headings: sampling and statistics;
broadband, e-commerce, and telecommunications; general business;
law and litigation support; web and computer resources;
finding people, places, and firms; and miscellaneous general-interest
sites.
The
website offers too many materials to address in this column.
Most of the state and local tax information can be accessed
from the “main menu” on the homepage. Resources
that would appeal to a broad range of users include general
directories of professional organizations and associations,
court cases, software providers and other vendors, and specific
state and city links.
In
addition to providing consulting services in the areas of
audit sampling and litigation support, Yancey offers many
free resources under the links for “sampling and statistics”
and “law and litigation support.” “Sampling
for income tax” includes listings and summaries of
IRC sections, federal court cases, IRS rulings and revenue
procedures, and journal articles. “Sampling in sales
and use tax audits” provides information similar to
the federal resources, organized for 47 states and the District
of Columbia. “General law” presents links to
federal government agency sources, law school library websites,
Internet sites, and compilations of federal, state, and
local law codes and court decisions.
Presentation
Outlines
Many
of the resources on Will Yancey’s homepage can be
located via one route, although there is some helpful cross-referencing.
One useful feature of the website can be found at the bottom
of the homepage, under the heading of “my presentation
outlines.” The outlines cover the topics of e-commerce
accounting and tax issues, litigation-support Internet sources,
and Internet uses for tax practice, and provide an organized
navigational approach to the specific resources available
on this website, as well as introduce additional resources
not found elsewhere on the website.
Susan
B. Anders, PhD, CPA, is an associate professor of
accounting at St. Bonaventure University.
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