Information processing system for determining tax information

1. An information processing system for use by a plurality of users associated with a multi-jurisdictional entity for managing said entity's tax provision based on data originating from at least one jurisdiction, the system comprises:

a. means for collecting said data from each jurisdiction of said multi-jurisdictional entity;

b. a source database storing said data for determining the tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity, wherein said tax provision comprising current and deferred tax provision, which are estimated tax expenses that may be later adjusted based on required changes to the entity's filed tax return, for its tax return to be filed for the current year, and that are certain to come due in the future, respectively;

c. means for calculating the tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity in accordance to a predetermined, non-governmental, accounting standard from said data stored in said source database;

d. a transformed database for storing the tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity as determined by said calculating means; and

e. a reporting engine for producing reports for the entity's financial statement to be filed with and as required by a regulatory authority using the tax provision from said transformed database;

f. means for accessing said source database and said transformed database by said plurality of users;

g. means for testing different scenarios of said tax provision for tax planning purposes by changing said tax provision stored in said transformed database;

h. means for automatically tracking the changes made to said tax provision stored in said transformed database for reconciliation of said tax provision to the filed tax return; and

i. means for automatically tracking the origination of said tax provision to support the financial statement to be filed with the regulatory authority.

2. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said collecting means comprises:

a source data maintenance engine for managing the input of data into said source database.

3. The information processing system as recited in claim 2 , wherein said collecting means further comprises:

an import engine for translating data for input to said source data maintenance engine.

4. The information processing system as recited in claim 2 , wherein said collecting means further comprises:

a data entry interface for interacting with said source data maintenance engine for data entry.

5. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said system further comprises:

a report interface for interacting with said reporting engine for producing reports.

6. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said calculating means synchronizes data in said transformed database with data in said source database.

7. The information processing system as recited in claim 2 , wherein said source data maintenance engine

a. provides an interface for directing the preparation of a tax provision and

b. determines a tax provision.

8. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said collecting means collects data from at least one remote location.

9. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said collecting means further comprises:

a software bridge for translating data from a legacy system into data for said source database.

10. The information processing system as recited in claim 9 , wherein said software bridge translates said data using extensible markup language protocol.

11. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said reporting engine produces report information in extensible markup language protocol.

12. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said source database stores normalized data from at least one legacy data source conformed to the data format of said source database.

13. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said collecting means further comprises:

a software bridge that automates the process of extracting data from at least one legacy external data source and transforming the extracted data into a format for importing into the source database.

14. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said source database includes data loaded from at least one remote location into said source database.

15. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said source database includes data from existing financial statements and existing tax returns.

16. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said system further comprises:

tax planning operations using information from said transformed database.

17. The information processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said system further comprises:

financial planning operations using information from said transformed database.

18. An information processing system for use by a plurality of users associated with a multi-jurisdictional entity for managing said entity's tax provision based on data originating from at least one jurisdiction, the system comprises:

a. means for collecting said data from each jurisdiction of said multi-jurisdictional entity;

b. means for transforming said data into transformed data;

c. a source database storing said transformed data for determining the tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity, wherein said tax provision comprising current and deferred tax provision, which are estimated tax expenses that may be later adjusted based on required changes to the entity's filed tax return, for its tax return to be filed for the current year, and that are certain to come due in the future, respectively;

d. means for calculating the tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity in accordance to a predetermined, non-governmental, accounting standard from said transformed data stored in said source database;

e. a transformed database for storing the tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity as determined by said calculating means; and

f. a reporting engine for producing reports for the entity's financial statement to be filed with and as required by a regulatory authority using the tax provision from said transformed database;

g. means for accessing said source database and said transformed database by said plurality of users;

h. means for testing different scenarios of said tax provision for tax planning purposes by changing said tax provision stored in said transformed database;

i. means for automatically tracking the changes made to said tax provision stored in said transformed database for reconciliation of said tax provision to the filed tax return; and

j. means for automatically tracking the origination of said tax provision to support the financial statement to be filed with the regulatory authority.

19. An information processing system for use by a plurality of users associated with a multi-jurisdictional entity for managing said entity's current tax provision based on data originating from at least one jurisdiction, the system comprises:

a. means for collecting said data from each jurisdiction of said multi-jurisdictional entity;

b. a source database storing said data for determining the current tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity, wherein said current tax provision being an estimated tax expense that may be later adjusted based on required changes to its filed tax return, for its tax return to be filed for the current year;

c. means for calculating the current tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity in accordance to a predetermined, non-governmental, accounting standard from said data stored in said source database;

d. a transformed database for storing the current tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity as determined by said calculating means; and

e. a reporting engine for producing reports for the entity's financial statement to be filed with and as required by a regulatory authority using the current tax provision from said transformed database;

f. means for accessing said source database and said transformed database by said plurality of users;

g. means for testing different scenarios of said current tax provision for tax planning purposes by changing said current tax provision stored in said transformed database;

h. means for automatically tracking the changes made to said current tax provision stored in said transformed database for reconciliation of said current tax provision to the filed tax return; and

i. means for automatically tracking the origination of said current tax provision to support the financial statement to be filed with the regulatory authority.

20. An information processing system for use by a plurality of users associated with a multi-jurisdictional entity for managing said entity's deferred tax provision based on data originating from at least one jurisdiction, the system comprises:

a. means for collecting said data from each jurisdiction of said multi-jurisdictional entity;

b. a source database storing said data for determining the deferred tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity, wherein said deferred tax provision being an estimated tax expenses that are certain to come due in the future;

c. means for calculating the deferred tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity in accordance to a predetermined, non-governmental, accounting standard from said data stored in said source database;

d. a transformed database for storing the deferred tax provision of said multi-jurisdictional entity as determined by said calculating means; and

e. a reporting engine for producing reports for the entity's financial statement to be filed with and as required by a regulatory authority using the deferred tax provision from said transformed database;

f. means for accessing said source database and said transformed database by said plurality of users;

g. means for testing different scenarios of said deferred tax provision for tax planning purposes by changing said deferred tax provision stored in said transformed database;

h. means for automatically tracking the changes made to said deferred tax provision stored in said transformed database for reconciliation of said deferred tax provision to the filed tax return; and

i. means for automatically tracking the origination of said deferred tax provision to support the financial statement to be filed with the regulatory authority.