Automated sales tax payment system
Described are technologies relating to transaction processing. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described herein can be embodied in methods that include the actions of calculating, in relation to a transaction, one or more tax amounts associated with a price of the transaction, obtaining, in relation to a payment source, an approval for at least the price of the transaction and the one or more tax amounts, thereby defining an approved sales transaction, and, subsequent to obtaining the approval, (a) settling at least a revenue portion of one or more approved sales transactions in favor of a first account, and (b) settling the one or more tax amounts in favor of a second account that is different than the first account.
1. A system comprising: one or more processors configured to interact with a computer-readable medium in order to perform operations comprising:
calculating, in relation to a transaction, one or more tax amounts associated with a price of the transaction;
obtaining, in relation to a payment source, an approval for at least the price of the transaction and the one or more tax amounts, thereby defining an approved sales transaction; and
subsequent to obtaining the approval,
(a) settling at least a revenue portion of one or more approved sales transactions in favor of a first account, and
(b) settling the one or more tax amounts in favor of a second account that is different than the first account.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein settling at least a revenue portion comprises simultaneously settling, in a batch, respective revenue portions of plural approved sales transactions.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein settling the one or more tax amounts comprises simultaneously settling, in a batch, respective tax amounts of plural approved sales transactions.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second account is accessible to a taxing authority.
5. The system of claim 1 , further configured to perform operations comprising:
triggering at least one of (a) settling at least a revenue portion and (b) settling the one or more tax amounts; and
performing the settling of the approved sales transaction in response to the triggering step.
6. The system of claim 5 , further configured to perform operations comprising receiving a selection to trigger both the settling of the revenue portion and the settling of the one or more tax amounts.
7. The system of claim 5 , further configured to perform operations comprising receiving (a) an identifier of the first account, (b) an identifier of a merchant, (c) an amount of the revenue portion of the one or more approved sales transactions, and (d) a date for each respective one of the one or more approved sales transactions.
8. The system of claim 7 , further configured to perform operations comprising receiving a time for each respective one of the one or more approved sales transactions.
9. The system of claim 7 , further configured to perform operations comprising receiving a routing number of the first account.
10. The system of claim 5 , further configured to perform operations comprising receiving (a) an identifier of the second account, (b) an identifier of the merchant, (c) the one or more tax amounts associated with the one or more approved sales transactions, and (d) a date for each respective one of the one or more approved sales transactions.
11. The system of claim 10 , configured to perform operations comprising receiving a time for each respective one of the one or more approved sales transactions.
12. The system of claim 10 , further configured to perform operations comprising receiving a routing number of the second account.
13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the revenue portion of the one or more approved sales transactions and the one or more tax amounts associated with the one or more approved sales transactions are settled free of any comingling.
14. The system of claim 1 , further configured to perform operations comprising closing the sales transaction in an amount up to the approval defined in the approved sale transaction.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the revenue portion comprises the price and a gratuity.
16. The system of claim 1 , further configured to perform operations comprising settling the revenue portion and the one or more tax amounts with a third party credit card processor.
17. The system of claim 1 , further configured to perform operations comprising remapping one or more fields in a sales file such that a total field within the sales file comprises a sum of an amount column and a tip column from within the sales file.
18. The system of claim 1 , further configured to perform operations comprising remapping one or more fields in a sales file such that a total field within the sales file comprises a sum of a tax column from within the sales file.
19. The system of claim 1 , further configured to perform operations comprising recalculating a total field within a sales file such that the total field comprises a sum of an amount column and a tip column from within the sales file, and omits from the recalculation a tax column from within the sales file.
20. The system of claim 1 , further configured to perform operations comprising recalculating a total field within a sales file such that the total field comprises a sum of a tax column from within the sales file and omits from the recalculation an amount column and a tip column from within the sales file.
21. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by one or more data processing apparatus cause the one or more data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
identifying one or more tax amounts associated with one or more transactions;
settling, with one or more processors, a revenue portion of the one or more transactions in favor of a first account; and
settling the one or more tax amounts associated with the one or more transactions in favor of a first sub-account of a second account, the second account comprising a plurality of subaccounts.
22. A system comprising: one or more processors configured to interact with a computer-readable medium in order to perform operations comprising:
calculating one or more tax amounts associated with a price of the transaction in relation to a transaction communicated to at least one of the processors over a network;
providing an acknowledgment over the network if the price of the transaction and the one or more tax amounts is either (1) within a credit limit of a credit card used in the transaction or (2) within parameters permitted for a debit card used in the transaction; and
in the event of the acknowledgement being provided:
(a) settling at least a revenue portion of one or more approved sales transactions in favor of a first account, and
(b) settling the one or more tax amounts in favor of a second account that is different than the first account.
23. The system of claim 22 , wherein settling at least a revenue portion comprises simultaneously settling, in a batch, respective revenue portions of plural approved sales transactions.
24. The system of claim 22 , wherein settling the one or more tax amounts comprises simultaneously settling, in a batch, respective tax amounts of plural approved sales transactions.
25. The system of claim 22 , wherein the second account is accessible to a taxing authority.
26. The system of claim 22 , further configured to perform operations comprising:
triggering at least one of (a) settling at least a revenue portion and (b) settling the one or more tax amounts; and
performing the settling of the approved sales transaction in response to the triggering step.
27. The system of claim 26 , further configured to perform operations comprising receiving a selection to trigger both the settling of the revenue portion and the settling of the one or more tax amounts.
28. The system of claim 22 , wherein the revenue portion of the one or more approved sales transactions and the one or more tax amounts associated with the one or more approved sales transactions are settled free of any comingling.
29. The system of claim 22 , further configured to perform operations comprising remapping one or more fields in a sales file such that a total field within the sales file comprises a sum of a tax column from within the sales file.