Patent ID: 7742958

Claim:
A computerized method for preparing a tax return comprising: obtaining a first authorization from a taxpayer to prepare said tax return; obtaining a second authorization from said taxpayer to monitor for availability of electronically distributed tax return data on a third party computer; receiving from said taxpayer location information for accessing said electronically distributed tax return data for said taxpayer; receiving from said taxpayer access procedure information for accessing said electronically distributed tax return data for said taxpayer; receiving at a computer said location information; initiating at said computer an operation in which said computer automatically periodically checks availability of said electronically distributed tax return data at said third party computer using said taxpayer location information; in response to automatically checking at said computer, notifying a tax preparer of availability of said electronically distributed tax return data; receiving at said computer from said tax preparer a request to access said electronically distributed tax return data at said third party computer using said location and access procedure information; providing said tax preparer with access to said electronically distributed tax return data at said third party computer; receiving at said computer for manual entry in a tax preparation system tax return data from said electronically distributed tax return data; and preparing a tax return at said computer using said manually entered tax return data.