Method, system, and software for providing tax audit insurance

A computer implemented method of interactively calculating and displaying risk and premium data for costs associated with a tax audit by a taxing authority, the method comprising the steps of:

• accessing tax audit statistics provided by the taxing authority;
• correlating tax audit costs to one or more parameters of taxpayers;
• calculating the average tax audit costs for groups of taxpayers wherein the groups of taxpayers are uniquely identified by values of the parameters;
• and
• receiving parameter values entered interactively by a taxpayer;
• determining a particular group for the taxpayer from said groups based on the parameter values entered by the taxpayer;
• and
• displaying the average tax audit costs corresponding to that particular group based on the parameter values received from the taxpayer.

A computer readable data storage medium having program code recorded thereon for providing insurance for costs assessed from a tax audit by a taxing authority, the program code comprising:

• a first program code that accesses data relating to tax audit costs assessed by the taxing authority correlated to one or more parameters of taxpayers;
• a second program code that calculates average tax audit costs for one or more groups of taxpayers using the data related to the tax audit costs, wherein each group is uniquely identified by parameter values for a taxpayer;
• and
• a third program code that determines a premium rate to be charged for each group of taxpayers based on the calculated average tax audit costs.

A system for providing insurance for the costs associated with a tax audit by a taxing authority, the system comprising:

• means for accessing data relating to tax audit costs assessed by the taxing authority correlated to one or more parameters of taxpayers;
• means for calculating average tax audit costs for one or more groups of taxpayers using the data related to the tax audit costs, wherein each group is uniquely identified by parameter values for a taxpayer;
• and
• means for determining a premium rate to be charged for each group of taxpayers based on the calculated average tax audit costs.

A method of distributing a tax insurance product by association with a tax preparation product, comprising the steps of;

• providing an option displayed by the tax preparation product to purchase the tax insurance product;
• invoking the tax insurance product application to access taxpayer related information stored by the tax preparation product;
• and
• calculating tax insurance parameters based on the accessed taxpayer related information.

A computer implemented method of providing tax preparation and tax audit protection services by an employer, comprising the steps of:

• at an employer sponsored computer:
• accessing payroll related information for an employee;
• receiving additional tax related input data for the employee;
• preparing a provisional tax return for the employee using the payroll related information and the additional tax related input data;
• and
• receiving either a confirmation or an adjustment from the employee accessing the provisional tax return;
• and
• automatically generating the final tax return for the employee after receiving the confirmation or processing the adjustment from the employee.