Professional Tax Software
UltraTax CS
UltraTax CS is Thomson Reuters' flagship professional tax software — the compliance engine of the CS Professional Suite used by established accounting firms. It handles 1040, 1120, 1065, 1041, and 990 work across 200+ state and local jurisdictions, with the firm-scale machinery (enter-once data sharing, four-monitor support, single-screen multistate apportionment) that high-complexity practices lean on.
Thomson Reuters has spent heavily to automate the workflow around it: SurePrep (acquired January 2023) automates 1040 document intake, and the $600M SafeSend acquisition announced January 2025 automates assembly, e-signature, and delivery — the "last mile" of a return.
- Website
- tax.thomsonreuters.com
- Category
- Professional Tax Software
- Pricing
- Paid (quote-based)
- Starts at
- Custom quote
- Best for
- Established multi-preparer firms with complex, multistate clients — especially those already in the CS Professional Suite.
- Profile updated
- July 16, 2026
Independent profile — no affiliate links or sponsored placement.
Key features
- Coverage for 1040, 1120, 1065, 1041, 990, and 200+ state/local forms
- Enter-once data sharing that propagates across related client returns
- Single-screen multistate apportionment and advanced depreciation
- E-filing with pre-transmission error checking and a status dashboard
- Deep integration with Accounting CS, Practice CS, Fixed Assets CS, and Checkpoint research
- SurePrep and SafeSend workflow automation; Ledgible (crypto) and Protection Plus add-ons
- Multi-monitor support across up to four synchronized displays
Pricing
Quote-based — Thomson Reuters publishes no price list. Cost is assembled from users, return volume, and states/jurisdictions, via a sales consultation (confirmed on the vendor's site, July 2026). For rough planning only: third-party hosting guides in 2026 estimated entry around $1,650/user/year for federal + one state, with per-state add-ons and setup fees — treat those as unverified estimates, not quotes. Cloud hosting is typically a separate third-party subscription on top.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Depth for complex and multistate work that value-tier software strains at
- The strongest research (Checkpoint) and workflow-automation ecosystem in the category
- Enter-once data sharing saves real hours across related entities
Cons
- Opaque, quote-based pricing that reliably lands at the top of the market
- Requires suite buy-in to shine — as standalone software you're paying for integration you don't use
- Modest and mixed public reviews for such a dominant product
Who should use UltraTax CS?
UltraTax CS is built for the firm, not the founder: multiple preparers, complex entities, multistate apportionment, and a workflow that flows returns through review to delivery. A small business owner filing their own return has no business here — and a solo preparer usually gets 90% of the capability at a fraction of the cost with Drake. It earns its quote when complexity, volume, and staff coordination are the actual bottlenecks.
Rating, for context: 3.5/5 on G2 (roughly 50–60 reviews; the count varied between snapshots) — as of July 2026.
FAQs
How much does UltraTax CS cost?+
Thomson Reuters doesn't publish pricing — quotes are built per firm from users, volume, and jurisdictions. Third-party 2026 estimates start around $1,650/user/year, but the only number that matters is the one on your quote.
Is UltraTax CS cloud-based?+
The software is desktop-class; firms typically run it via Virtual Office CS or third-party cloud hosting billed per user per month. Factor hosting into the total cost.
What changed with UltraTax CS recently?+
Workflow automation: SurePrep (2023) automates document intake and the SafeSend acquisition (announced January 2025, $600M) automates return assembly, e-signature, and delivery around UltraTax CS.
Similar tools in the directory
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