Case Study
TaxSource — access to legislation for tax professionals
Background
Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) is the largest and longest established accountancy body in Ireland. It has over 17,000 members and 6,500 students, and it is the leading voice of the accountancy profession in Ireland.
New Chapter worked with CAI in order to match the requirements of tax professionals with the technological opportunities provided by the latest XML and Web 2.0 capabilities. Working as partners with the CAI, we provided a creative and innovative approach to meeting the project’s requirements.
Project brief
CAI wanted to provide its members with an accessible, searchable up-to-date version of Irish Tax Legislation. Although the text of the statutes can be found on official government sites, they are not easy to understand as old laws are amended frequently by new legislation but updated versions of the old laws (‘consolidations’) are published only occasionally.
Legislation in TaxSource showing amendments
Requirements gathering
New Chapter met with the key project stakeholders to map out requirements and to explore ways in which the project’s goals could be met. After analysing the requirements and matching them to the appropriate technologies we reported back with the options.
Prototyping
We created a prototype click-through model of the site, illustrating the techniques that we proposed to employ. Demonstrating the model to project stakeholders allowed us to set expectations and ensure that all contributors shared an accurate view of the proposed deliverables.
Document analysis and data modelling
New Chapter analysed the legislation, ancillary materials and meta information which collectively would form the site’s content. We created appropriate XML data models together with user-documentation for the subsequent data-capture phase.
Specification and supplier selection
The data capture phase involved the keying and XML markup of over 10,000 pages of legislation and related content. We assisted the ICAI in the selection of a suitable supplier of data capture services and created a detailed specification for the capture process and the subsequent consolidation of the legislation.
Project oversight
During the capture phase New Chapter provided data quality assurance and query resolution services.
Data transformation and web site design
The integration of the captured XML data into the website structure was achieved through XML data transformation. All data was automatically converted into web format using XSLT stylesheets developed by New Chapter. The website uses an innovative approach to text display, allowing the numerous layers of amendments made to the base acts to be viewed in a variety of different modes.
Legislation in TaxSource showing amendments merged and definitions highlighted
Functions and benefits to subscribers (YouTube video)
Brian Keegan, Director of Taxation at the ICAI, describes some of the features of TaxSource in this YouTube Video.