METHOD TO INCREASE COLLECTION OF DEBTS OWED TO GOVERNMENT

• US 20080215392A1
• Filed: 12/27/2007
• Published: 09/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Financial Management Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Financial Management Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Rajan, Balaji S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,231 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A method of increasing the collection of debts owed a government agency by collecting additional names associated with a debtor, verifying that an additional name represents the same person as the debtor, and providing those additional names to the government agency that is owed by the debtor. After the additional names are added, future payments to the debtor can be offset by the amount owed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to enable a referring agency to increase collections of debts owed to the referring agency by debtors, the method comprising the steps of:

a. obtaining an input file from the referring agency in any electronic or paper file format, the input file comprising a plurality of debtor records, each debtor record comprising a name, address, and taxpayer identification number of the debtor;

b. loading the input file into a database and assigning a unique identification number to each debtor record;

c. sending the debtor records to one or more sources of public records through secure transmission protocols and obtaining from the one or more sources specific data elements for each debtor record;

d. downloading the specific data elements to the database using the secure transmission protocols and appending the specific data elements to the identification number of each debtor record;

e. comparing the information contained in the debtor records with the public records to create a list of matched debtor records, and creating a confidence score for each matched debtor record based on predetermined criteria;

f. generating from the confidence score for each matched debtor record a potential list of different names that have been used by each debtor; and

g. creating an output file, converting the unique identification number for the debtor record back to the referring agency taxpayer identification number, the output file comprising additional names for certain debtors, and transmitting the output file to the referring agency through secure transmission protocols to enable the referring agency to offset debts owned by a debtor against any payments owed to the debtor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to step (c), the step of reformatting the debtor records so that each debtor record has a specific format, wherein the specific format includes the identification number of each debtor record.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein, during step (c), the debtor records are sent to the public records sources only for the permissible purposes allowed under applicable laws and regulations.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising the further step of making the input file more accurate by eliminating debtor records that should no longer be included in an offset process by the referring agency because of legal or other exclusions.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the legal or other exclusions include debtor bankruptcy and death.

6. The method of claim 1 comprising the additional step of identifying a risk of legal and other public relations exposure to the referring agency by identifying and classifying input file errors where the referring agency should take additional steps to ensure that the debtor record is valid.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of identifying a risk of legal and other public relations exposure further comprises identifying debtor records with mismatched taxpayer identification numbers or debtor names.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein step (e), creating a confidence score, comprises matching multiple levels of data, the data including taxpayer identification number, name, name history, address and address history.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein step (f) includes using pre-defined business rules that are applied by and generated through a computer program.

10. The method of claim 1, comprising the further step, prior to step (g), of comparing each additional name to the debtor name on the input file debtor record, and removing duplicate name records.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein step (e) further comprises creating a separate confidence score for each one of a set of values that match or do not match in a progressive sequence between each debtor record and the public records, the values comprising social security number, first name, last name, address, address history and date of birth.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein alias names are appended to debtor records using the confidence score generated in step (e).

13. The method of claim 1 wherein each debtor name from the input file is compared to the additional names, and duplicates are removed.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the referring agency can select or de-select confidence scores based on the referring agency'"'"'s internal requirements.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the debtors comprise individuals, corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietors.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the payments owed by the debtor may include loans, grant overpayments and non-payment of taxes.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the referring agency is provided with the ability to send the input data via Internet or other direct connection access.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the referring agency can send, receive, upload and download debtor records through secure electronic means with encryption and other devices in multiple formats, media, and methodologies comprising Internet, File Transfer Protocol, and email.

19. The method of claim 8 wherein the referring agency is provided a method to select or de-select the predefined business rules based on their internal requirements.