Patent ID: 8510187

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of processing a tax refund, the method comprising: an intermediate computer in communication with a computer of a tax authority and a computer of a user of a tax preparation program through respective networks accessing an electronic tax return prepared by execution of the tax preparation program to receive or determine an amount of the tax refund; the intermediate computer identifying accounts of the user that are available to receive at least a portion of the tax refund; the intermediate computer determining an allocation of the tax refund among selected accounts of the identified accounts to increase a value of the tax refund relative to the amount of the tax refund, at least one account being selected when the account satisfies pre-determined balance criteria comprising a balance of the at least one account increasing when at least a portion of the tax refund is transferred to the at least one account according to the determined allocation to cause an interest rate of the at least one account to increase from a first interest rate to a second interest rate; the intermediate computer receiving the tax refund at the intermediate computer from the computer of the tax authority, wherein the tax refund is not directly deposited by the tax authority into an account of the user; and the intermediate computer transferring respective portions of the tax refund to respective selected accounts based at least in part upon the determined allocation.