Methods and apparatus for centralized global tax computation, management, and compliance reporting

• US 8,386,344 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2011
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Reuters Incorporated (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Christian, Eric Thomas, Brandt, John Davidson
• Primary Examiner(s): SHEIKH, ASFAND M
• Application Number:
  US13/301,031
• Publication Number:
  US 20120072321A1
• Time in Patent Office: 463 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/31
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for tax computation, management, and compliance reporting via a centralized transactional tax platform capable of incorporating transaction data and/or tax information from multiple locations and/or multiple business applications via a network architecture are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a central server may be configured to execute an application to generate a user interface to enable configuration of tax compliance data via a network link, to receive transaction data from one or more client systems via the network, to calculate transaction taxes corresponding to the transaction data, and to store tax information, including outputs and computational logic generated by tax calculation engines executed by the server. In another embodiment, the tax calculations may be executed client-side, while administration of tax compliance data and reporting are facilitated by the central server.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing, from a central server to at least one client system located remotely from the central server, a user interface configured with tax compliance configuration data entry fields including plural user-selectable taxable transaction location options and product code cross-reference group options and a user-selectable tax rate modification field for calculating taxes corresponding to one or more transactions;

receiving, at the central server, tax compliance configuration data transmitted from the client system, the tax compliance configuration data including transaction location management data corresponding to a user selection from among the plural user-selectable taxable transaction location options of the user interface corresponding to the one or more transactions from said at least one client system via a network communication link, the tax compliance configuration data generated from at least two business sales-related applications;

calculating, by at least one tax engine at the central server, the taxes corresponding to the one or more transactions based on the received tax compliance configuration data;

storing, at the central server, tax information corresponding to the taxes in a central storage; and

returning a tax calculation to the at least two business sales-related applications that generated the tax compliance configuration data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one tax engine comprises a domestic tax engine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one tax engine comprises an international tax engine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the tax compliance configuration data are incorporated into elements of an extensible markup language document by the at least one client system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two business sales-related applications comprise one or more of order entry, quotes, accounts payable, e-commerce, and a combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two business sales-related applications comprise at least two instances of a single application being executed by multiple client systems.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two business sales-related applications comprise multiple applications being executed by the at least one client system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the taxes comprise taxes selected from a group including turnover taxes, sales and use taxes, and value added taxes.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface is a graphical user interface.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include nexus information.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include location information.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include exceptions and exemptions to standard tax provisions.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the exceptions and exemptions to standard tax provisions are implemented by way of an input filter.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include a selection of at least one zone.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include a selection of at least one taxing authority.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include registration information.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the tax information comprises audit data to enable centralized reporting, analysis of sales information corresponding to a location, or both.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the tax information includes a record of computational logic and outputs generated by the at least one tax engine.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the returning a tax calculation includes reporting a consolidated tax calculation comprehensive of one or more selected from the group consisting of two or more tax transactions, two or more business sales-related applications, and two or more locations.

45. The apparatus of claim —

4, wherein the tax compliance configuration data further include a selection of at least one taxing authority.

20. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions coded thereon, including instructions which, when executed on a server, are configured to cause the server to;

(a) communicating from the server to a client system a user interface configured with tax compliance configuration data entry fields, wherein the tax compliance configuration data entry fields include plural user-selectable taxable transaction location options, and product code cross-reference group options and a user-selectable tax rate modification field for calculating taxes corresponding to one or more transactions;

(b) receive, from the client system, and process tax compliance configuration data derived from one or more of the tax compliance configuration data entry fields of the user interface including a user selection from among the plural user-selectable taxable transaction location options corresponding to the one or more transactions received from said at least one client system via a network communication link, the tax compliance configuration data generated from at least two business sales-related applications executed at one or more locations;

(c) calculate, by at least one tax engine, the taxes corresponding to the one or more transactions based on the received tax compliance configuration data;

(d) store tax information corresponding to the taxes in a central storage; and

(e) process a tax calculation to send to the at least two business sales-related applications executed at one or more locations that generated the tax compliance configuration data.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the at least two business sales-related applications comprise one or more of order entry, quotes, accounts payable, e-commerce, and a combination thereof.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the at least one tax engine comprises a domestic tax engine.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the at least one tax engine comprises an international tax engine.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the tax compliance configuration data are incorporated into elements of an extensible markup language document by the at least one client system, and the instructions to process the tax compliance configuration data include instructions to parse the extensible markup language document.

25. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include nexus information.

26. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include location information.

27. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include exceptions and exemptions to standard tax provisions.

28. The article of manufacture of claim 27, wherein the exceptions and exemptions to standard tax provisions are implemented by way of an input filter.

29. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include a selection of at least one zone.

30. The article of manufacture of claim 29, wherein the tax compliance configuration data further include a selection of at least one taxing authority.

31. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include registration information.

32. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the tax information comprises audit data to enable centralized reporting, to enable analysis of sales information corresponding to a location, or to enable both.

33. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the tax information includes a record of computational logic and outputs generated by the at least one tax engine.

34. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the instructions are further configured, when executed on the server, to cause the server to report a consolidated tax calculation comprehensive of one or more of the group consisting of two or more transactions, two or more business sales-related applications, and two or more locations.

35. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory memory, coupled with the processor, the memory including a plurality of machine-readable instructions; and

a communications interface coupled to the processor and configured to communicate with at least one client system located remotely relative to the apparatus via a network, wherein, execution of the plurality of instructions by the processor causes the apparatus to;

(a) generate a user interface, wherein the user interface is configured with tax compliance configuration data entry fields including plural user-selectable taxable transaction location options and product code cross-reference group options and a user-selectable tax rate modification field for calculating taxes corresponding to one or more transactions;

(b) provide, via the communications interface, the user interface to a client system;

(c) receive from the at least one client system, via the communication interface, tax compliance configuration data corresponding to a user selection from among the plural user-selectable taxable transaction location options from the one or more transactions, the tax compliance configuration data generated from at least two business sales-related applications executed at one or more locations;

(d) calculate, by at least one tax engine coupled with the apparatus, the taxes corresponding to the one or more transactions based on the received tax compliance configuration data;

(e) store, in a central storage coupled with the apparatus, tax information corresponding to the taxes; and

(f) return, via the communications interface, a tax calculation to the at least two business sales-related applications that generated the tax compliance configuration data.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the at least two business sales-related applications comprise one or more of order entry, quotes, accounts payable, e-commerce, and a combination thereof.

37. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the at least one tax engine comprises a domestic tax engine.

38. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the at least one tax engine comprises an international tax engine.

39. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the tax compliance configuration data are incorporated into elements of an extensible markup language document by the at least one client system.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include nexus information.

41. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include location information.

42. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include exceptions and exemptions to standard tax provisions.

43. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the exceptions and exemptions to standard tax provisions are implemented by way of an input filter.

44. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include a selection of at least one zone.

46. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the tax compliance configuration data include registration information.

47. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the instructions to return a tax calculation include instructions to return a consolidated tax report comprehensive of one or more of the group consisting of two or more transactions, two or more business sales-related applications, and two or more locations.

48. A method, comprising:

providing, from a central server to at least one client system located remotely from the central server, a user interface configured with tax compliance configuration data entry fields including plural user-selectable taxable transaction location options and product code cross-reference group options and a user-selectable tax rate modification field for calculating taxes corresponding to one or more transactions;

receiving, at the central server, tax compliance configuration data transmitted from the client system, the tax compliance configuration data including transaction location management data corresponding to a user selection from among the plural user-selectable taxable transaction location options of the user interface corresponding to the one or more transactions from said at least one client system via a network communication link, the tax compliance configuration data generated from at least two business sales-related applications;

calculating, by at least one tax engine at the client system, the taxes corresponding to the one or more transactions based on the tax compliance configuration data;

receiving, at the central server, tax information corresponding to the taxes; and

storing, at the central server, tax information corresponding to the taxes in a central storage.