System and method for generating explanations for tax calculations

A computing system, comprising:

• a shared data store of an application operable to store runtime data of a form;
• a display;
• and
• a processor configured to execute:
• a user interface controller of the application in communication with the shared data store, the user interface controller being configured to generate user interface screens presentable to a user of the application through the display;
• a directed graph structure of the application and associated with the runtime data of the form, the directed graph structure semantically describing data dependent operations and comprising respective leaf nodes that are populated with respective specific runtime data, function nodes associated with respective input nodes, respective functions, and respective result nodes, wherein inputs to a function of the directed graph structure comprises data of respective associated leaf nodes, a result node comprises a calculation result generated by execution of the function, and respective pre-determined explanations are associated with respective function nodes and functions;
• a calculation engine of the application that is in communication with the shared data store and being configured to:
• read, from the shared data store, runtime data of the form being prepared by a user of the application,
• populate respective leaf nodes with the runtime data,
• provide respective data of respective leaf nodes as inputs to a function of the directed graph structure,
• execute the function to generate a calculation result, and
• populate a result node with the calculation result;
• and
• an explanation engine of the application that is in communication with the calculation engine and the user interface controller and programmed to:
• construct a narrative explanation concerning the calculation result, and
• communicate the narrative explanation to the user interface controller;
• wherein the user interface controller is further configured to present, through the display, a computer-generated interface comprising the narrative explanation.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodying one or more instructions of a computerized tax return preparation application executable by a computing device to execute a process comprising:

• reading, from a shared data store, runtime data of a form being prepared by a user of the application;
• populating a directed graph structure of the form, the directed graph structure semantically describing data dependent operations and comprising respective leaf nodes populated with respective specific runtime data, function nodes associated with respective input nodes, respective functions, and respective result nodes, wherein respective pre-determined explanations are associated with respective function nodes and functions, inputs to a function comprises runtime data of respective associated leaf nodes, and a result node is populated with a calculation result generated by execution of the function,
• constructing a narrative explanation concerning the calculation result;
• communicating the narrative explanation to a user interface controller of the application that is also in communication with the shared data store;
• and
• presenting, through a display of the computing device and to the user, a computer generated interface comprising the narrative explanation concerning the calculation result.