FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

[0001] The invention relates generally to creating cross-reference information for tax return documents, and more particularly to systems and methods for creating cross-reference links, tables and lead sheets for tax return documents.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Tax return documents are received from many different sources such as an employer, partnership, investment firm, charity, and so on. These documents may be forwarded to a tax preparer who prepares an income tax return for an individual or a business. Once the income tax return has been completed, the tax preparer can check the income tax return for accuracy and completeness by reviewing and cross-referencing the tax return documents. However, this task may be burdensome and difficult because the tax preparer has to look through every single tax return document to check the accuracy and completeness of each entry in the income tax return. Also, this task is time consuming because the review process is performed without having any cross-reference documents or numbers.

[0003] Alternatively, the tax preparer can manually write in a cross-reference number for each entry in the income tax return; however, this task is also very burdensome, difficult and time consuming because the tax preparer may have to write in dozens of cross-reference numbers. Furthermore, this task may need to be redone each time a change is made to the income tax return. Also, this task may need to be updated each time another tax return document is submitted by the individual or business.

[0004] Accordingly, it should be appreciated that there is a need for a system and method for creating cross-reference links, tables and lead sheets for tax return documents in an automated fashion to increase the efficiency of checking the accuracy and completeness of income tax returns. The invention fulfills this need as well as others. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] One embodiment of the invention is a processor-based method for creating a cross-reference link for a tax document. The method may include receiving a tax document, displaying a page of the tax document, receiving a form name corresponding to the page of the tax document, and receiving a company name corresponding to the page of the tax document. The method may also include displaying a plurality of categories related to the form name, selecting a category from the plurality of categories, providing a link corresponding to the selected category, and receiving a number corresponding to the link.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] The exact nature of this invention, as well as the objects and advantages thereof, will become readily apparent from consideration of the following specification in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the figures thereof and wherein:

[0007] Figure 1 is a simplified block diagram of a computer system having a software program for creating cross-reference links, tables and lead sheets for tax return documents according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0008] Figure 2 is a simplified flow diagram illustrating a method for creating cross- reference links for tax return documents according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0009] Figure 3 is a graphical user interface (GUI) illustrating a view area for displaying a page of the electronic document and a forms area for displaying a plurality of titles corresponding to a plurality of forms according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0010] Figure 4 is a page of the electronic document illustrating a W-2 document for FLY BY NIGHT according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0011] Figure 5 is a page of the electronic document illustrating a W-2 document for ABC according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0012] Figure 6 is a simplified flow diagram illustrating a method for creating reference pages or work papers for tax return documents according to an embodiment of the invention; [0013] Figure 7 is an example of a wages lead sheet for a form 1040 tax return that has been created using the W-2 documents from FLY BY NIGHT (Figure 4) and ABC (Figure 5) according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0014] Figures 8a and 8b are an example of a tax return reconciliation page for a form 1040 tax return according to an embodiment of the invention; and

[0015] Figures 9a and 9b are an example of a table of contents page for a form 1040 tax return according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] Reference will now be made to the preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention will be described in conjunction with the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that these embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be understood by one skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known systems, components, methods and procedures have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the important aspects of the invention. As will be appreciated, various embodiments of the invention are described herein and shown in the figures. The term link and reference may be used interchangeably in certain instances in this disclosure.

[0017] Figure 1 is a simplified block diagram of a computer system 100 having a software program for creating cross-reference links, tables and lead sheets for tax return documents. The computer system 100 (e.g., a personal computer, hand-held device or workstation) includes a digital computer 102, a display screen 104, a keyboard 106, a mouse 108 or other pointing device, a storage device 110 (e.g., a hard disk drive, optical disk drive, magnetic disk drive or floppy disk drive), and a scanner 112. The digital computer 102 may include a processor 114, a memory 116 (e.g., RAM, ROM or cache), and other customary components (e.g., memory bus and peripheral bus). The software program is generally stored in the storage device 110 or the memory 116 and is executed by the processor 114. In one embodiment, tax software files containing proformaed data is stored in the storage device 1 10 or the memory 1 16. The software program can also be implemented using hardware or a combination of hardware and software. The storage device 1 10 can be referred to as a machine-readable medium, which may be any mechanism that provides (i.e., stores and/or transmits) information in a form readable by the digital computer 102 (e.g., the processor 1 14). For example, the machine-readable medium may be a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a cache, a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive, a magnetic disk storage media, an optical storage media, a flash memory device or any other device capable of storing information. The storage device 110 may include a database 118 that can be used to store, arrange and retrieve data from the storage device 110.

[0018] Figure 2 is a simplified flow diagram 200 illustrating a method for creating cross- reference links for tax return documents. Tax return documents (e.g., W-2s, 1099s, K-Is, and so on) are generally in the form of paper documents that are received by a tax payer shortly after the end of each calendar year. Upon receipt by the tax payer, the tax return documents are forwarded to a tax preparer for review and preparation of a tax return. To allow the tax preparer to work on the tax return documents using the computer system 100, the documents are sometimes scanned into a single electronic document, such as a portable document format (PDF) document or file, using the scanner 112 (S-202). The single electronic document allows the tax preparer to work on the tax return documents from anywhere at anytime. The electronic document is typically arranged as a sequence of individual pages where each page can have objects, such as text, graphics, images, color spaces, annotations, and so on. A document viewing software program, such as Adobe Acrobat from Adobe Systems Incorporated of San Jose, California, can be used to view the electronic document (S-204). Once scanned in, the tax return documents can be used to create documents (e.g., table of contents, lead sheets, tax reconciliation pages, etc.) to assist the tax preparer in efficiently preparing and reviewing the tax return.

[0019] Figure 3 is a graphical user interface (GUI) 300 illustrating a document view area 302 for displaying a page 304 of the electronic document and a forms view area 306 for displaying a plurality of form types 308 corresponding to a plurality of forms. After the tax return documents are scanned in, a classifier may view the page 304 of the electronic document, and may select or input a form type 308 corresponding to the page 304 being displayed in the document view area 302 (S-206). The page(s) of the electronic document that belong to a form type 308 are sometimes referred to as a document set (e.g., Setl, Set2, Set3, and so on). Hence, the electronic document is broken up into a number of document sets. The document sets are generally auto numbered beginning with Setl by the computer system 100.

[0020] The classifier may be the computer system 100 or an individual capable of selecting the appropriate form type 308 and inputting the appropriate form name 310 for each page or group of tax return documents. The form name can be selected from a list of preexisting form names 310 or can be added by inputting a form name 310 representing the form name desired. In the illustrated example, the form types 308 include W-2, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, 1099-OID, TAX EXEMPT INTEREST, TAX EXEMPT DIVIDEND, SCH-D Attachment SHORT TERM, SCH-D Attachment LONG TERM, K-I FORM 1065, K-I FORM 1120S, K-I FORM 1041, FORM 1099-R (ERA), FORM 1099-R (PENSION), and so on. The forms corresponding to the form types 308 may be created by retrieving the proformaed data from the tax files and importing the proformaed data into the database 118. The computer system 100 associates the document sets to the proformaed forms. That is, one or more pages in the electronic document may be related to a proformaed form.

[0021] Once the form type 308 has been selected, the classifier may input or if already input, may select a form name 310 identifying the document or page 304 being displayed in the document view area 302 (S-208). In the illustrated example, the W-2 form type 308 and the FLY BY NIGHT form name 310 have been selected because the displayed page 304 is a FLY BY NIGHT W-2 document.

[0022] Once the form type 308 and the form name 310 have been selected, a referencer causes the computer system 100 to insert one or more links or references on the pages of the electronic document. The referencer may be an individual capable of causing the computer system 100 to insert or display one or more links or references on the pages of the electronic document. For example, for each category on the displayed page 304, the referencer, via the mouse 108, positions a display pointer adjacent to (e.g., to the right of) the category and double click a left mouse button to display a list of categories 312 (e.g., in a popup menu) specifically related to the selected form type (S-210, S-212). The list of categories 312 for a W-2 form type 308 may include (1) Wages, tips, other compensation, (2) Federal income tax withheld, (3) Social security withheld, (4) Medicare tax withheld, (5) Dependent care benefits, (6) State income tax, and (7) Local income tax. The referencer selects a category 314, from the list of categories 312 displayed, corresponding to the category adjacent to the position of the display pointer (S-214). For example, the referencer may select (1) Wages, tips, other compensation after positioning the display pointer adjacent to (e.g., to the right of) that category on the page of the electronic document.

[0023] Once selected, the computer system 100 inserts, enables or displays a link 316 at or near the position of the display pointer (S-216) on the displayed page 304 and a link symbol 318 adjacent to the category 314 on the popup menu to indicate that the link 316 has been placed on the displayed page 304 (S-218). Also, for each link 316 added adjacent to an amount, the computer system 100 inserts, enables or displays an input line 320 and an input field 322 corresponding to the selected category 314 on the displayed page 304 (S-220). The referencer or a data entry operator inputs the number from the selected category 314 into the input field 322 (S-222). As shown in Figure 3, the number input is 80,000. In one embodiment, the computer system 100 retrieves the number from the linked category on the displayed page 304 and inserts the number into the input field 322. The computer system 100 stores link information for each link 316 in the storage device 110 (S-224). The link information may include the form type 308 corresponding to the link 316, the form name 310 corresponding to the link 316, the page number of the electronic document corresponding to the link 316, the amount or data corresponding to the link 316, the physical location of the link 316, and so on. Depending on the company's business model, the classifier, the referencer and the data entry operator may be one or more individuals or may be implemented using the computer system 100. Steps S-210 through S-224 can be repeated to create a link 316 for each category on the popup menu.

[0024] Figure 4 is a page of the electronic document illustrating a W-2 document for FLY BY NIGHT. Initially, the classifier viewed the W-2 document and selected the W-2 form type 308 corresponding to the W-2 document displayed in the document view area 302. Thereafter, the classifier input the FLY BY NIGHT form name 310 to identify the name of the W-2 document. Using the mouse 108, the referencer caused the computer system 100 to input a link R at or near the position of the display pointer. As shown, the links R have been placed adjacent to the selected category 314. For each link R, the link information (e.g., page 38, etc.) is stored in the storage device 110. The "R" has been used for illustrative purposes only to represent the link 316. Generally, the link 316 is shown as a block with a number inside the block where the number indicates the page number that the information has been obtained from.

[0025] Figure 5 is a page of the electronic document illustrating a W-2 document for ABC. Initially, the classifier viewed the W-2 document and selected the W-2 form type 308 corresponding to the W-2 document displayed in the document view area 302. Thereafter, the classifier input the ABC form name 310 to identify the name of the W-2 document. Using the mouse 108, the referencer caused the computer system 100 to input a link R at or near the position of the display pointer. As shown, the links R have been placed adjacent to the selected category 314. For each link R, the link information (e.g., page 39, etc.) is stored in the storage device 110.

[0026] Figure 6 is a simplified flow diagram 600 illustrating a method for creating reference pages or work papers for tax return documents. The reference pages are used to assist the tax preparer in efficiently checking the tax return documents for accuracy and completeness. For illustrative purposes, the reference pages can include, for example, a table of contents page, a tax return reconciliation page, a wages lead sheet, an interest lead sheet, and so on. In one embodiment, one or more reference pages are created for each form type 308. The reference pages may include a column of amounts and references. A reference to the left of an amount means that the data is coming from the page on the reference and a reference to the right of an amount means that the data is going to the page on the reference. The subtotal and total amounts listed on the reference pages may be copied to a tax reconciliation page.

[0027] Figure 7 is an example of a wages lead sheet 700 for a form 1040 tax return that has been created using the W-2 documents from FLY BY NIGHT (Figure 4) and ABC (Figure 5). The wages lead sheet 700 can be used as a summary sheet of the wages of the tax payer. The wages lead sheet 700 is used to assist the tax preparer in efficiently checking the wages information contained in the tax payer's tax return to ensure that the information is accurate and complete.

[0028] To create the wages lead sheet 700, the processor 114 retrieves a blank wages table having a number of headings as shown in Figure 7 from the memory 116 (S-602). Thereafter, the processor 114 retrieves the link information corresponding to the links 316 that are positioned on the form types 308 that relate to the blank wages table (S-604) and inputs the link information into the corresponding row and column of the blank wages table (S-606). For example, the wages lead sheet 700 includes a link 702 to the left of the FLY BY NIGHT title, which indicates that the information is coming from page 38. Similarly, the wages lead sheet 700 includes a link 704 to the left of the ABC title, which indicates that the information is coming from page 39. The wages lead sheet 700 also includes a link 706, which indicates that the 5,000 is going to page 76, a link 708, which indicates that the 4,000 is going to page 76, and a link 710, which indicates that the 180,000 is going to page 4. Generally, when the link is to the left of the number it is coming from a particular page and when the link is to the right of the number it is going to a particular page. In one embodiment, the computer system 100 may create a column in the blank table for the amounts (S-608). Using the link information, the computer system 100 creates a link in the column for one or more of the row entries (S-610) and adds a page number into the link (S- 612). The computer system 100 may add functionality to the links for allowing the tax preparer to navigate through the electronic document (S-614). For example, the computer system 100 may allow the tax preparer to switch from one link to the next, go back and forth between links having the same page number, simultaneously display all pages with links having the same page number, and so on.

[0029] Figures 8a and 8b are an example of a tax return reconciliation page 800 for a form 1040 tax return. The tax return reconciliation page 800 provide a list of entries contained in the form 1040 tax return. The tax return reconciliation page 800 is created in a manner similar to that described in Figure 6.

[0030] Figures 9a and 9b are an example of a table of contents page 900 for a form 1040 tax return. The tax return reconciliation page 900 provide a list of entries contained in the form 1040 tax return. The tax return reconciliation page 900 is created in a manner similar to that described in Figure 6.

[0031] Although exemplary embodiments of the invention has been shown and described, many other changes, combinations, omissions, modifications and substitutions, in addition to those set forth in the above paragraphs, may be made by one having skill in the art without necessarily departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. Accordingly, the invention is not intended to be limited by the preferred embodiments, but is to be defined by reference to the appended claims.