After almost three years and an investment of R2 million in professional time and resources, South African tax expert Herschel Alpert has developed and launched the hApp-etax tax app.
The app is available for download through iOS App Store or on Google Play, and is aimed at a broad market covering users with a basic knowledge of tax (students or bookkeepers) and high level tax professionals.
It features information related to South African income tax legislation, including the Income Tax Act, the Tax Administration Act, as well as practice and interpretation notes.
Alpert decided to create and launch the app commercially because of the difficulty people experience in being able to quickly source and access tax information.
Those on the hunt for this information usually end up having to sift through books, pamphlets and slow websites, which only adds to the frustration says Alpert. To accurately source tax updates is also a problem.
"I know only too well the issues faced by South African tax professionals in getting tax information fast. The app aims to provide a comprehensive tax information base that is easy to navigate with an intuitive search engine to make finding information really easy without an internet connection. The app's sophisticated search engine has been designed to understand what the user is looking for and to provide core tax information immediately."
Alpert has emphasised the interactive search engine as the app's core value proposition. "Many hours were spent tweaking the search engine so that the search results would be meaningful to the user and not result in hundreds or thousands of duplicate hits. The search engine also searches the peripheral information related to the legislation. The app is updated automatically by the user when he or she checks for updates."
Alpert says the intention is to expand beyond Africa and then internationally. However, the immediate objective is to exploit the South African market, with a specific focus on the SA VAT Act, Customs and Duties Act (both of which are already work-in-progress), legislation regularly used by lawyers etc.
The app is available on trial for free for the first three months and thereafter priced at R489 a year.
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