Tax return outsourcing and systems for protecting data

A financial services outsourcing method for facilitating a direct service provider's management of financial services to numerous clients, the financial services being outsourced to an outsourcing group abroad, the method comprising:

• prioritizing tax returns for outsourcing, wherein a tax return with a lower priority is outsourced before a tax return with a higher priority is outsourced;
• for plural respective direct service providers, loading, onto a remotely accessible part of a common host server located in a given country, client specific financial files and corresponding reference materials, the host server providing access to a remote computer client of information concerning the client specific financial files and the corresponding reference materials;
• retaining outsourced personnel to perform tax return preparation services for clients of the direct service providers during a tax season;
• monitoring a work time of the retained outsourced personnel;
• and
• determining when the retained outsourced personnel are underutilized.

A financial services outsourcing method for facilitating a direct service provider's outsourcing of financial services for numerous ultimate clients, the financial services being outsourced to an outsourcing group abroad, the method comprising:

• prioritizing tax returns for outsourcing, wherein a tax return with a lower priority is outsourced before a tax return with a higher priority is outsourced;
• for plural respective direct services providers, loading, onto a remotely accessible part of a common host server located in the United States, client specific financial files and corresponding reference materials, the host server providing access to a remote computer client of information concerning the client specific financial files and corresponding reference materials;
• retaining outsourced personnel to perform financial service projects for respective clients of the financial services firms, the outsourced personnel performing the financial service projects while located outside the United States;
• is providing the outsourced personnel limited access to the server;
• the outsourced personnel performing the financial service projects through a remote limited access client located outside the United States connected to the host server;
• and
• monitoring and reporting the status of the financial service projects.

A method comprising:

• prioritizing tax returns for outsourcing, wherein a tax return with a lower priority is outsourced before a tax return with a higher priority is outsourced;
• retaining outsourced personnel to prepare the tax returns prioritized for outsourcing;
• providing tax software and tax files to the outsourced personnel;
• monitoring work time of the outsourced personnel;
• annotating, by the outsourced personnel, the tax returns prioritized for outsourcing;
• and
• completing, by the outsourced personnel, the tax returns prioritized for outsourcing utilizing the tax software and tax files that are implemented on a computer.

A method comprising:

• obtaining, by a firm, information concerning a tax filer;
• logging, by the firm, the information concerning the tax filer into an outsourcing computer system;
• outsourcing, by the firm, a preparation of a tax return of the tax filer to a tax return preparer;
• providing, by the outsourcing computer system, to the tax return preparer, access to the information concerning the tax filer;
• starting, by the tax return preparer, the preparation of the tax return;
• reviewing, by the tax return preparer, the information concerning the tax filer;
• imputing, by the tax return preparer, data into the outsourcing computer system, the data relating to the tax return;
• identifying, by the tax return preparer, missing information, the missing information required to prepare the tax return;
• and
• in response to identifying missing information:
• (i) generating, by the tax return preparer, a list of questions, the list of questions for supplying the missing information;
• (ii) sending the list of questions to the firm;
• (iii) contacting, by the firm, the tax filer to address the list of questions;
• (iv) transmitting, by the firm, the missing information to the tax return preparer;
• and
• (v) completing, by the tax return preparer, the preparation of the tax return.

A system comprising:

• a plurality of tax returns, the tax returns prioritized for outsourcing, wherein a tax return with a lower priority is outsourced before a tax return with a higher priority is outsourced;
• outsourced personnel, the outsourced personnel for preparing the tax returns;
• tax software and tax files, the tax software and files for the outsourced personal to complete the tax returns;
• information, the information concerning one or more tax filers of each of the tax returns;
• and
• an outsourcing computer system, the outsourcing computer system for storing the information and providing the information to the outsourced personnel.