ICT4 Elderly/E-taxes

Contents of the module

• e-Tax preparation;
• e-Tax transmission;
• Personal Identification Number - security;
• Understanding of personal e-taxes system benefits and disadvantages.

Learning objectives

• Participants will understand the general objectives of e-taxes;
• Participants will be able to use e-taxes to calculate the amount of tax owed;
• Participants will be able to find important information about electronic filing on the Internet;
• Participants will understand the basic advantages of using e-taxes (increased accuracy and ease of use).

Learning outcomes

• Participants will be able to make their tax preparation (needed to compute and report the tax);
• Participants will be able to transmit tax returns electronically;
• Participants will understand the importance of safety when preparing, transmitting and returning e-taxes.

Learning scenario

• Videos;
• Interactive demonstrations.

Evaluation

Evaluation has two parts: (1) participants will have to electronically compute and report the tax and (2) they will take a short quiz about basic e-taxes concepts.

Following this module learners will:

• Participants will be able to make their tax preparation (needed to compute and report the tax);
• Participants will be able to transmit tax returns electronically;
• Participants will understand the importance of safety when preparing, transmitting and returning e-taxes.

Introduction

In each piloting country, partners will be responsible for the organization of training lesson plans. Here below you can find a script to follow in order to conduct the training lessons.

Please fill this document for each module. Each module should be between 1 and 2 hours long (depending on the complexity of the module and amount of information needed). The goal is to have the 19 modules (between 19h and 30h) described in this document with all the activities each lesson will have.  

Overall description

This curriculum aims at training adult trainers in developing courses where they coach their audience (students/trainee...) to take actively part in their learning process.

Electronic tax filing

Or e-filing, is a system for submitting tax documents to a revenue service electronically, often without the need to submit any paper documents.

Electronic filing is the process of submitting tax returns over the Internet using tax preparation software that has been pre-approved by the relevant tax authority. E-filing has manifold benefits which have made this system of tax preparation increasingly popular in recent years; the taxpayer can file a tax return from the comfort of his or her home, at any convenient time, once the tax agency begins accepting returns.

Electronic filing, or e-filing, saves the tax agency time and money because the tax data is transmitted directly into the agency's computers, significantly reducing the possibility of keying and input errors.

Advantages: Speed / Convenience and Practicality

One advantage of using an electronic filing system is speed. Obviously, using technology is much faster than utilizing a local postal service. For instance, when filing your tax income, using the Internet and emailing tax forms directly to the financial authority will only take minutes. No need for standing in lines and manually filling out forms.

A taxpayer who files his taxes via the traditional procedure will usually have to consult accountants, agents or tax preparers, going back and forth for additional information, waiting for the agent to finish and approve the paperwork, and sending forms to the financial authority. With electronic filing, taxpayers can conveniently send a tax return anytime during the week. This constant availability allows a taxpayer to conveniently pay at his own convenience, whether during a weekend, a holiday, or on evenings. Taxpayers can easily handle their taxes and finances right at their own homes, with just a few clicks of a mouse. You can save a lot of money when you practice electronic filing since you don't have to use couriers, postage stamps, and fax messaging. Since electronic filing means you don't need to send actual records and documents, you can quickly complete your forms without having to leave your home.

Disadvantage: Security

Filing records electronically may not be as secured as sending them via mail or post. Especially for those who employ an outside or third-party service to do the electronic filing for them, you are providing identifiable information that the service may keep on file for a long period of time. This means that more individuals can have access to your information. In a particular case, wherein you are supposed to receive tax refunds and you want it done immediately, you will have to provide your bank account number and routing number for the deposit to take place.

A personal identification number (PIN)

Or sometimes redundantly a PIN number, is a numeric or alpha-numeric password used in the process of authenticating a user accessing a system. The personal identification number has been the key to flourishing the exchange of private data between different data-processing centers in computer networks for financial institutions, governments, and enterprises. PINs may be used to authenticate banking systems with cardholders, governments with citizens, enterprises with employees, and computers with users, among other uses.

Keywords

Electronic tax filing, e-Tax, e-Filing, Tax, Online tax, PIN.

Material required

• Personal computer (Smartphone or tablet connected to the Internet)
• Internet connection
• Beamer
• Paper and pens
• Flipchart
• Speakers

Context

• Participants will be able to make their tax preparation (needed to compute and report the tax)
• Participants will be able to transmit tax returns electronically
• Participants will understand the importance of safety when preparing, transmitting and returning e-taxes  

Session structure

The purpose of the session will be:

• to provide an introduction to electronic tax filing
• to provide an introduction to electronic tax filing
• to discover the importance of safety when preparing, transmitting and returning e-taxes
• to motivate to transmit tax returns electronically

Introduction

In the introductory part, the lecturer will introduce concepts that he will later explain in more detail during the lectures. The basic concepts that will be addressed are e-tax, e-filing, online tax and security. Participants will be able to interact with comments or questions.

Concepts of e-tax

The main part of the content will be devoted to e-tax or e-filing. The lecturer will introduce the concepts in more detail and relate them to the conventional payment method. After drawing up parallels, the lecturer will explain all the advantages and disadvantages of the online tax payment system. An important part of online payment is also the protection of personal information.

Online identity

Everyone opens his/her laptop

Assignment - Participants will need to make a plan on how to arrange their online identity for each of them, and thus the ability to pay taxes online.

Questions and comments

The last part of the lecture will address the questions, concerns and comments of the participants on the topic of online tax payment, the benefits of this and the security of using online payment systems.

Homework

For homework, every participant has to find every paper form needed, from different financial institutions, to calculate the tax assessment.  1h

Debriefing

To wrap up the session, the trainer will facilitate a debriefing moment where participants are encouraged to express their questions, doubts, ideas and feelings toward the topics discussed.

Evaluation

Participants will answer a small questionnaire to evaluate the session. Another part of the evaluation will be the results of the short quiz, taken by the participants which will shows us the level of received knowledge.

Overall duration of the session

1 hour

References

• Investopedia: E-Filing
• Electronic tax filing
• Advantages an disadvantages of Electronic Filing System