Patent ID: 8126787

Claim:
A computerized method for preparing a tax return comprising: (a) obtaining authorization from a taxpayer to monitor for availability of electronically distributed tax return data on a third party computer; (b) receiving from said taxpayer location information for accessing said electronically distributed tax return data from said third party computer; (c) entering in a computer said location information; (d) initiating at said computer an automated process for periodically checking availability of said electronically distributed tax return data at said third party computer using said taxpayer location information; (e) in response to automatically checking availability at said computer, notifying a tax preparer of availability of said electronically distributed tax return data; (f) 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 information; (g) providing said tax preparer with access to said electronically distributed tax return data at said third party computer; (h) receiving at said computer for manual entry in a tax preparation system tax return data from said electronically distributed tax return data; (i) preparing at said computer a tax return using said manually entered tax return data; and (j) notifying said taxpayer that said tax return has been prepared.