System and method for tracking charitable deductions

• US 7,395,230 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2001
• Issued: 07/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Walter, Craig B., Whitten, Gordon D. Jr., Rademacher, Carey G., Hermreck, Scott A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Buchanan; Christopher R.
• Application Number:
  US09/805,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20020133436A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,667 Days
• Field of Search: 705/31
• US Class Current: 705/31
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission

Abstract

A system and method for recording and tracking charitable donations over a period of one or more years, and for determining the tax consequence associated with such donations based upon taxing authority guidelines (including laws, regulations, rules, guidelines or other mandates) applicable to the time period in which such donations were made. One aspect of the invention is directed to a method implemented by software for tracking charitable donations over a period of years whereby a user is prompted to select a donation and a year in which the donation was made from a memory; the software retrieves a tax deductible valuation associated with that donation and stores the donation and value in the memory in association with each other. Another aspect of the invention is directed to a system for determining the tax deductible value of charitable donations whereby a partner server electronically captures sales data of items and sends the sales data to a system server that stores such data in memory.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for tracking charitable donations, said method comprising the steps of:

storing in memory data indicative of one or more non-cash donatable items and a tax-deductible valuation associated with each said non-cash donatable item for a current tax year and at least one previous tax year;

prompting a user to select one or more of said non-cash donatable items that has been charitably donated in one of said tax years and to indicate the tax year in which the selected non-cash donatable item was donated;

retrieving the tax-deductible valuation associated with said selected non-cash donatable item for the indicated tax year from memory;

receiving sales data periodically from one or more partner servers, wherein said partner servers are programmed to electronically collect sales data of items sold;

calculating the tax-deductible valuation in accordance with tax authority guidelines for each of said non-cash donatable items based on said sales data; and

storing said selected non-cash donatable item, indicated tax year and retrieved tax-deductible valuation in said memory in association with each other.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said sales data is received via a communications network.

3. A system for determining a tax-deductible valuation of charitable non-cash donatable items, said system comprising:

memory for storing data indicative of said non-cash donatable items and said tax-deductible valuation associated with each said non-cash donatable item for a current tax year and at least one previous tax year;

one or more partner servers having at least one data source where used items are sold, wherein said partner servers are adapted to electronically capture sales data of items sold at said at least one data source;

a sales history database for storing the sales data of used items; and

a system server adapted to;

periodically receive the captured sales data from the partner servers, calculate said tax-deductible valuation in accordance with tax authority guidelines for each of said non-cash donatable items based on said sales data,

receive a user selection of a used non-cash donatable item that has been charitably donated and a year in which the item was donated,

retrieve said tax-deductible valuation associated with the selected non-cash donated item for the indicated tax year,

store said selected non-cash donatable item, indicated tax year and retrieved tax-deductible valuation in said memory in association with each other; and

provide said tax-deductible valuation to the user.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said sales data includes an item description, date of sale and amount of sale.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein said data sources are Internet auction web sites.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein said data sources are retail shops that sell used goods.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein said sales data is electronically captured during sales transactions.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein said system sewer is accessible by users via a communications network and further programmed to provide a search engine that allows said user to search said database to locate said sales data corresponding to said item that has been charitably donated.

9. The system of claim 3, wherein said system sewer is further programmed to create an export file containing information pertaining to charitable donations for importing into an electronic tax preparation application.