Can a small tax preparation office use Alteryx tools to prepare us federal tax returns?

[ncsfsd]

I would like to assemble a collection of tools that would intake various tax forms such as W-2, and various 1099's and other tax data to output complete and correct Form 1040 tax returns. Form 1040 can be prepared using any online tax preparation if an interface can be constructed. Form fill might be an approach if there are no API's for the tax preparation software.

[AbhilashR · Accepted solution]

@ncsfsd - you could build this solution using pure Python code approach, or use a combination of R and/or Python libraries within Alteryx to achieve the same result. https://automatetheboringstuff.com/ has some material and Python code if you are looking to get started on this solution.

[ncsfsd]

Thank you for your quick reply. I wonder if it would be simpler to create a form fill routine to automate data input to the online tax preparation software.
We have been using TaxSlayer to prepare tax returns. Tax slayer does not support importing tax data from 3rd party sources and does not support the use of an API. Turbo Tax and HR Block supports downloads from many financial institutions which eliminates keyboarding for the bulk of tax data. We are not able to use personal tax software for many reasons.
I wonder how difficult it would be to create a capability to use PDF input documents, OCR and extract clean data values and treat the interface to TaxSlayer as a form fill action. We use the chrome browser to access TaxSlayer online.
If I can find a solution that minimizes keyboarding our work will be much more productive and hopefully improve the quality of all tax returns that we prepare.
I appreciate your thoughts, comments, and suggestions. 
Respectfully
Bill

[AbhilashR]

Reading your note it seems like you are looking for a solution that can write to TaxSlayer online's web form? If yes, I don't think Alteryx can natively do that. I have seen teams use some form of off the shelf RPA tool, or write their own Python code to achieve RPA like functionality.

Please pardon me if I completely misunderstood your point. I don't have a tax background and feel a bit out of my depth in answering your question. 

[ncsfsd]

Thank you. I am not familiar with Robotic Process Automation(RPA) but will look for more information. I was hoping that alteryx would provide a neat solution.

My point of departure is that millions of tax returns are prepared annually. Surely, there must be a better way than keying all of the tax data.
Hoping to find a solution. The time spent doing taxes and the cost is just too high.
Perhaps a more basic approach is needed. One that provides a detailed process description in parallel with extracting rules from the 70000 pages of tax code. Any ideas for preparing and validating the business process? Any ideas for extracting rules from the volumes of tax code and instructions. Perhaps this has been done. An alternate approach might be to scan the web and extract relevant data from the huge amount of internet sources.

I tried using a handheld scanner to scan and fill forms. This was not successful. Scan with OCR technology appeared promising. After a few unsuccessful attempts I concluded further technology development was needed.
I suppose security and privacy issues are just too great to permit automation of tax return preparation in the immediate future. Are there any robots available to assist with tax return preparers?

Appreciate your ideas.
Thanks
Bill

[Tiffyyy]

Alteryx do support API connection. This article might be of your interest showing how Alteryx can process PDF file for tax purpose as well :

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Use-Cases/Using-the-Text-Mining-Tools-on-Federal-Tax-Forms/...