Re: [tax] Tax XML Suggested Direction

[Andy Greener <andy@gid.co.uk>]

At 8:43 am -0500 14/1/03, John.Glaubitz@vertexinc.com wrote:
>Some good dialog has started around the Tax XML direction and some good
>points raised.  Andy's assertion that we need to answer "why" to any of the
>initiatives we pursue will certainly be a critical aspect of our analysis
>and prioritization.  In addition, Andy summed up well some of our thoughts
>on what we may need to deliver when he said, "our job may simply be to
>apply the domain-specific expertise to extend a set of business-oriented
>standards into the taxation domain" (although "simply" may be an
>overstatement).

Undoubtedly! ;-)

>                 To accomplish this end will still need some rigor and
>organization and the staged approach proposed by Rod (or was it Bruce)
>seems well thought out and articulated to meet that purpose. It should
>provide a good framework for us to organize our efforts.
>
>To continue the discussion, we thought we might focus on the business
>context of one area of tax compliance as an example to identify how we
>might approach it and to determine whether a Tax XML standard may provide
>value.  Since Andy identified tax registration as an example of a process
>that may not benefit from standardization it may be a good choice to
>dissect for this purpose.

Hmm ok! Well, there's registration and there's registration! I was
thinking more along the lines of 'registration to file', rather than
'registration to collect' (I'll admit to a bit of a blind-spot with
regard to 'registration to collect', since IR don't administer VAT in
the UK - we have no such thing as sales tax - and the only activity
we might regard as third-party tax collection is the PAYE payroll
tax deduction system operated by just about every corporate entity.
However, like VAT, PAYE registration is something that a corporate
entity will probably only do once in its history, at the outset).

Registration to file (by which I mean providing the means to authenticate
one's self so that authorised tax filings can be made in future) is something
else again. It was this I was thinking about when I made my original
assertion. In the UK, "Registration & Enrollment" (for all Govt services,
not just tax filing) is handled centrally by the UK Govt Gateway. The fact
that in our particular case, and possibly in others, the registration is
not solely tax-related, led me to the conclusion that standardisation
efforts in this area by a tax-oriented standards group alone might be
difficult to achieve, making other areas more attractive to tackle first.

However, you make the case well for standardisation of 'registration to
collect' scenarios from a tax solution provider standpoint, and I have no
problem with the template/context/component approach that you are suggesting.

I must go off and investigate how our PAYE Scheme registration works!...

-- 

Andy Greener                         Mob: +44 7836 331933
GID Ltd, Reading, UK                 Tel: +44 118 956 1248
andy@gid.co.uk                       Fax: +44 118 958 9005