Simplified tax interview
AssigneeHRB Innovations, Inc.
InventorsJason Houseworth, Heather Watts, Daniel D. Martin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system, method and media for providing a simplified, personalized tax interview to a user preparing a tax return for a taxpayer by determining which portions of a full tax interview are relevant to the return being prepared and then presenting only those relevant portions to the user. To make this determination, one or more prototypes (each representing one or more underlying characteristics associated with the return that inform the relevant portions of the tax interview) are determined for the return based on information already known before the tax interview is presented and may be updated based on information entered during the tax interview.
Claims20
A system for presenting a simplified tax interview to a taxpayer, comprising:
- a data store storing a plurality of tax returns;
- a typecasting engine comprising:
- a classifier operable to determine a prototype for a tax return being classified based on values of a plurality of indicator variables associated with prescreen data for the tax return being classified,
- said at least one prototype corresponding to an underlying characteristic of the tax return that influences the tax interview;
- a data import engine, operable to:
- import tax data for the taxpayer for a prior tax return;
- download one or more tax forms corresponding to the taxpayer;
- and
- based at least on the tax data and the tax forms, determine one or more values for the indicator variables for the tax return being classified;
- and
- a user interface engine operable to present a portion of a full tax interview to the taxpayer without presenting the full tax interview, wherein the portion is selected based on the prototype determined by the classifier and is personalized to the taxpayer's tax data.
A method of presenting a simplified tax interview to a taxpayer, comprising the steps of:
- importing prescreen data associated with a tax return for the taxpayer;
- comparing said prescreen data to a plurality of indicator variables;
- identifying at least one prototype based on said comparing,
- said at least one prototype corresponding to an underlying characteristic of the tax return that influences the tax interview;
- identifying a first portion of a full tax interview based on the at least prototype;
- and
- without presenting a full tax interview, presenting the identified first portion of the full tax interview to the taxpayer.
One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by computer perform a method of determining a simplified tax interview for a taxpayer, the method comprising the steps of:
- importing tax data relating to a plurality of previously prepared tax returns from a data store storing said tax data;
- data mining said tax data to determine a plurality of prototypes,
- each of said plurality of prototypes corresponding to an underlying characteristic of a tax return that influences a tax interview for preparing the tax return;
- for each prototype, determining one or more indicator variables corresponding to said prototype;
- and
- storing said prototypes and said indicator variables in a prototype data store.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.