System for performing tax computations

Claim 2

A computer system for analyzing taxable aspects of a financial contract, comprising: a tax server having tax processing logic to provide generic tax computations; a converter to convert and uniformly present tax related financial contract data; a database to store tax related financial contract data managed by the converter; a pre-defined message, which transmits the tax related financial contract data from the converter to the tax server; and a client application to uniformly invoke tax processing logic on the tax server.

Claim 3

The computer of claim 1 wherein the tax related financial contract data is independent of a source of tax calculations.

Claim 4

The computer of claim 1 wherein the tax server applies the tax processing logic based on a comparison of before and after states of the financial contract.

Claim 5

The computer of claim 3 wherein the contract states are modeled by state objects representing the financial contract and an associated component, and wherein each after image state object is related to a corresponding before image state object.

Claim 8

The system of claim 5 wherein the tax engine is separate from the financial subsystem.

Claim 9

The system of claim 5 wherein the financial contract type is an insurance contract.

Claim 10

The system of claim 5 wherein the financial contract type is an annuity contract.

Claim 11

The system of claim 5 wherein the tax engine includes a message-based architecture.

Claim 12

The system of claim 5 wherein the tax engine transforms flat, specific information to generic information inside objects.

Claim 13

The system of claim 5 wherein the tax engine includes a plurality of sub-components, wherein a first sub-component models rules associated with generic tax legislation and a second sub-component provides a product-related tax interpretation.

Claim 14

The system of claim 5 wherein the tax engine applies the tax processing logic without instructions from the financial subsystem.

Claim 15

The system of claim 5 wherein tax legislation is embodied in objects, which include a plurality of separate test objects to model a plurality of regulatory tax sections, and whereby the test objects remain resident during processing and retain applicable results for further use during a transaction.

Claim 16

The system of claim 5 wherein the tax engine analyzes tax related financial contract data on a per transaction basis.

Claim 17

The system of claim 5 wherein the converter includes a plurality of converter modules, each converter module converting the protocol of a respective financial contract type into the common message structure.

Claim 18

The system of claim 5 further comprising: a database having tax related financial contract data stored therein the tax related financial contract data being managed by the converter; and a client application to invoke generic tax computations from tax processing logic in the tax engine.

Claim 19

The system of claim 16 wherein the tax related financial contract data is independent of a source of the tax computations.

Claim 20

The system of claim 5 wherein the tax engine applies tax processing logic based on a comparison of before and after states of the financial contract.

Claim 21

The system of claim 18 wherein the contract states are modeled by objects representing the financial contract and an associated component, and wherein each after image state object is related to a corresponding before image state object.

Claim 22

The system of claim 18 wherein the tax engine analyzes changes to tax-related insurance parameters.

Claim 23

The system of claim 18 wherein the financial subsystem is an accounting system.

Claim 24

The system of claim 18 wherein the tax engine analyzes tax compliance for financial applications.

Claim 25

The system of claim 22 wherein the financial subsystem includes a financial services commission module.

Claim 26

A computer-implemented method for applying tax legislation to financial contracts, the method comprising: storing financial data including tax related financial contract data for a plurality of financial contracts of a financial contract type in a financial subsystem; communicating the stored financial contract data external to the financial subsystem in a protocol; in a converter coupled to the financial subsystem, converting the protocol of the financial subsystem into a common request message structure; in a tax engine: storing tax processing logic for analyzing tax related financial contract data for a plurality of financial contract types; receiving the financial contract data in the common request message structure from the converter; and applying the tax processing logic to the tax related financial contract data in response to the financial contract data.

Claim 27

A computer-implemented method for applying tax legislation to financial contracts, the method comprising: storing financial data including tax related financial contract data for a plurality of financial contracts of a financial contract type in a financial subsystem; communicating the stored financial contract data external to the financial subsystem in a protocol; in a converter coupled to the financial subsystem, converting the protocol of the financial subsystem into a common request message structure; in a tax engine: storing tax processing logic for analyzing tax related financial contract data for a plurality of financial contract types; receiving the financial contract data in the common request message structure from the converter; and applying the tax processing logic to the tax related financial contract data in response to the financial contract data.

Claim 28

The method of claim 24 wherein the tax engine is separate from the financial subsystem.

Claim 29

The method of claim 24 wherein the financial contract type is an insurance contract.

Claim 30

The method of claim 24 wherein the financial contract type is an annuity contract.

Claim 31

The method of claim 24 wherein the tax engine includes a message-based architecture.

Claim 32

The method of claim 24 further comprising, in the tax engine, transforming flat, specific information to generic information inside objects.

Claim 33

The method of claim 24 wherein the tax engine includes a plurality of sub-components, wherein a first sub-component models rules associated with generic tax legislation and a second sub-component provides a product-related tax interpretation.

Claim 34

The method of claim 24 wherein the tax engine applies the tax processing logic without instructions from the financial subsystem.

Claim 35

The method of claim 24 wherein tax legislation is embodied in objects, which include a plurality of separate test objects to model a plurality of regulatory tax sections, and whereby the test objects remain resident during processing and retain applicable results for further use.

Claim 36

The method of claim 24 wherein the tax engine analyzes the tax related financial contract data on a per transaction basis.

Claim 37

The method of claim 24 further comprising: storing tax related financial contract data in a database managed by the converter; and invoking generic tax computations from the tax processing logic in the tax engine in response to a client application.

Claim 38

The method of claim 34 wherein the tax related financial contract data is independent of a source of the tax computations.

Claim 39

The method of claim 24 further comprising, in the tax engine, applying tax processing logic based on a comparison of before and after states of the financial contract.

Claim 40

The method of claim 36 further comprising, in the tax engine, analyzing changes to tax-related insurance parameters.

Claim 41

The method of claim 36 wherein the financial subsystem is an accounting system.

Claim 42

The method of claim 36 wherein the contract states are modeled by objects representing the financial contract and an associated component, and wherein each after image state object is related to a corresponding before image state object.

Claim 43

The method of claim 39 wherein the comparison is performed by: sending a message to the after image state objects; and in the after image state objects, interrogating respective related before image state objects.

Claim 44

The method of claim 36 wherein the tax engine analyzes tax compliance for financial applications.

Claim 45

The method of claim 41 wherein the financial subsystem includes a financial services commission module.