Intuit, Inc.

Carol Ann Howe

Nankun Huang

Robert E Bamford

Amir R Eftekhari

Christopher Marc Dye

Alan Brian Tifford

Jeffrey P Ludwig

Yao H Morin

Massimo Mascaro

Varadarajan Sriram

Karla Julietta Uribe

Brian Joon Chung

Vitaliy Igorevich Lee

Michael Albert Miljour

Gang Wang

Gerald Baron Huff

Erikheath A Thomas

Caitlin Elizabeth Flint

Ashpak Salim Shaikh

R Jason Char

Joshua David Ackerman

Jane L Ryder

George Thomas Ericksen

Harsimran S Badwal

Sharon E Hunt

Peter Ouyang

Jonathan Lunt

Horace Chan

Sheldon Porcina

Andre Felipe Luis

David Jeffrey Snow

Greg Coulombe

Joel R Minton

Leah Zhao

Kasey L Matthews

Brian W Farwell

Ken Yocum

Ye Ji Kim

Crystal Chung

Mohammad Daraghmeh

Alexis Hartford

Brian Lyle Hofmaister

Andrew Roe

Sylvia R Knust

Thai D Dang

Amir Eftekhari

David J Snow

Methods, systems and articles of manufacture for allowing taxpayers to utilize mobile communication or communication devices such as smartphones and tablet devices to upload tax document images and process tax document images such that resulting recognized tax data is incorporated into an electronic tax return. Authentication data is generated and provided to the taxpayer to establishing a connection with an image processor, which provides recognized tax data to the on-line tax preparation application for incorporation into the electronic tax return. Authentication data may be embodied within a URL address to the image processor that is transmitted as a SMS message to the mobile communication or computing device or encoded within a QR code such that the mobile communication or computing device can be used to take an image of and decode the QR code to determine the URL address and authentication data to establish a connection with the image processor.

Tax document imaging and processing

A method and system provide estimated tax refund data to a user of a tax return preparation system throughout personalized tax return preparation interview. The method and system receive current user tax related data associated with the user, retrieve tax rules data, and gather historical tax related data associated with historical users of the tax return preparation system. The method and system further generate probabilistic inference data including inferences about tax related characteristics of the user based on the historical tax related data and the tax rules data. The method and system provide estimated tax refund data to the user based on the probabilistic inference data.

System and method for providing a predicted tax refund range based on probabilistic calculation

A network-based synchronization system includes a server executing an electronic tax preparation program. The server is in communication with first and second computing devices through first and second networks. The first computing device utilizes the electronic tax preparation program. The second computing device is a mobile communication device including an image acquisition component and a mobile application executing thereon. The server, and the first and second computing devices are cooperatively operable through the first and second networks to synchronize the electronic tax preparation program and the mobile application based at least in part upon data acquired by the image acquisition component. The server receives the data acquired by the image acquisition component and transmits the data to the first computing device to synchronize the mobile application and the electronic tax preparation program.

Network-based synchronization system and method

A method for performing transactions using an aggregate payment medium involves obtaining payee data associated with a payee, obtaining transaction data associated with a transaction to be performed between a payer and the payee, and determining, for each payment medium, a benefit and a cost associated with using the payment medium for the transaction. The method further includes obtaining, for each of the payment media, a return from using the payment medium for the transaction, based on the benefit and the cost, selecting, from the payment media, a payment medium with a highest return, and providing, by the aggregate payment medium, payment medium data associated with the selected payment medium to the payee to enable execution of the transaction.

Method and system for performing transactions using aggregate payment media

Computing systems, computer-implemented methods, articles of manufacture for making personalized assessments regarding whether a taxpayer should be presented with a standardized flow of interview screens, questions or topics, or with an itemized deduction flow of interview screens, questions or topics. This assessment is made utilizing a generated user interface and analytic data elements that generate outputs that reflect the taxpayer's data, e.g., in the form of ranges of numerical data that are based on the taxpayer's data. User interface elements representing response options in the form of range data may be selected by the user without entering specific electronic tax return data for the purpose of making standardized v. itemized determinations and to determine which questions or topics can be bypassed.

Computer generated user interfaces, computerized systems and methods and articles of manufacture for personalizing standardized deduction or itemized deduction flow determinations

During an image-analysis technique, the system calculates features by performing image analysis (such as optical character recognition) on a received image of a document. Using these features, as well as spatial and grammatical constraints, the system determines a layout of the document. For example, the layout may be determined using constraint-based optimization based on the spatial and the grammatical constraints. Note that the layout specifies locations of content in the document, and may be used to subsequently extract the content from the image and/or to allow a user to provide feedback on the extracted content by presenting the extracted content to the user in a context (i.e., the determined layout) that is familiar to the user.

Layout reconstruction using spatial and grammatical constraints

A method and system provides personalized user experiences to users of a tax return preparation system, at least partially based on likelihoods of occurrence of life events for the users in a tax year, according to one embodiment. The method and system applies the user data to one or more predictive models to determine the likelihood that one or more available life events occurred in a user's life in a tax year, according to one embodiment. The method and system display life event icons that represent the one or more available life events, and the life event icons are ranked, sorted, and/or emphasized, based on the likelihood that the one or more available life events occurred in a user's life, to increase a user's confidence in the tax return preparations system's capability to address the user's life changes while preparing the user's tax return, according to one embodiment.

Method and system for providing a personalized user experience in a tax return preparation system based on predicted life events for a user

A computing device acquires a video of a tax document utilizing a video camera such as a webcam. The video is analyzed to detect a first motion of the tax document, such as sufficient shaking or movement of the tax document, satisfying first pre-determined criteria that results in the computing device being prompted or requested by the user to take an image of the tax document. After the first pre-determined criteria has been satisfied, the user is instructed to hold the tax document steady. Subsequent video frames are analyzed to detect a second motion or the tax document being sufficiently still or steady, in response to which an image of the tax document is acquired and processed to extract data of the tax document from the acquired image and populate corresponding fields of the electronic tax return.

Methods systems and computer program products for motion initiated document capture

A method and system provides augmented OCR data to a user of a financial system. The method and system include receiving image data related to an image of a financial document of the user and generating OCR data based on the image data. The method and system further include receiving financial data related to the financial document, analyzing the financial document, and generating the augmented OCR data based on the OCR data and the financial data.

Data accuracy in OCR by leveraging user data and business rules to improve data accuracy at field level

Computer-implemented methods, systems and computer program products for directing a current user of a tax preparation application to a portion of the current user's tax document. Images of tax documents of other or prior users are received, and a tax document image is selected. Tax data within the selected tax document image is redacted from the image to generate an image of a template of a tax document. Sections or interface elements of interview screens generated by the tax preparation program are mapped to sections of the template. When the current user selects an interface element such as a field, a pre-determined or selected portion of the template image is presented through the tax preparation application to the current user. The particular field mapped to the particular selected interface element may be identified or highlighted.

Methods systems and articles of manufacture for providing tax document guidance during preparation of electronic tax return

Methods, systems and articles of manufacture for generating interface elements of an electronic tax preparation application to allow a taxpayer or user to view a portion of an image of a tax document that is a source of data for a field of a screen generated by the electronic tax application. The image portion displayed may be a particular box or field of a tax document for a corresponding particular field of the screen generated by the electronic tax preparation or a bounding region including one or more adjacent or surrounding boxes or fields. Embodiments allow taxpayers to view an image of a source document while viewing the data that was entered in the field from within the tax preparation application without having to consult paper copies of the tax documents.

Presentation of image of source of tax data through tax preparation application

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Carol Ann Howe