FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mary Kroening +1-828-350-0350
March 26, 1996--VerTec Solutions, Inc. announced today the release of their tax submission software -- CyberTax(TM). CyberTax is a combined effort on the parts of VerTec Solutions, Inc. of Greensboro, NC; Adobe Systems, Inc. of Mountain View, California, and Nelco, Inc. of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The vision was to merge the technologies of the Adobe Acrobat(R) Portable Document Format(PDF) and VerTec’s TranZform(TM) plug-in software together with Nelco’s expertise in electronic tax filing to allow the general public to file federal taxes electronically by modem or via the Internet. CyberTax is not a "stand-alone" software product, but a software enhancement to Adobe Reader v2.1, which must be installed before CyberTax will execute. By utilizing the technology and know-how of the three companies, CyberTax brings a wide-range of assistance to the personal filer.
To further assist the personal filer, VerTec employed a specialized Artificial Intelligence Knowledge Base, written in Prolog with Amzi!(R) Prolog Logic Server(R), in their application. Prolog is a programming language designed for solving problems that involve different objects and relations between objects. It uses logic to express knowledge, and it uses inference to manipulate knowledge. The Knowledge Base, in order to eliminate human errors, performs calculations, carries information forward to appropriate fields, and sums total amounts automatically.
Prolog, a declarative programming language, was chosen to represent the tax rules because of the nature of the tax rules--they change every year and are made up of rules for relating data. Also, since tax forms contain so many duplicate values, Prolog provided the best means to handle the redundant values on all the forms. Due to Prolog, the user has no need to enter the same information more than once. Currently, CyberTax contains approximately 800 rules and supports 22 of the most commonly used federal tax forms, including multiple W-2s, W-2Gs, and 1099Rs.
The workflow for CyberTax is simple due to Prolog handling most of the logic for each form. Users simply enter their tax information by tabbing to and entering data into simple edit boxes. After the data is entered, it is passed to the built-in Knowledge Base which analyzes the information. This approach provides a quick and effective means to perform all of the related computations in all of the supported tax forms. The method also works well for getting estimated tax results. For example, a user could enter guess values into the edit boxes. The program would then handle the computations, thus allowing a user to get a feel for what the tax situation would be under certain circumstances.
Once the tax return has been completed, the system sends the data to a verification module to ensure that there are no obvious mistakes. After passing the verification process, the tax information may be sent electronically, or by mail.
For more information about CyberTax, please contact:
VerTec Solutions, Inc. 5601 Roanne Way, #606, Greensboro, NC 27409
Tel: 910-855-9555, Fax: 910-855-1766, info@vertec.com, http://www.vertec.com
For more information about Amzi! Prolog + Logic Server, please contact:
Mary Kroening, Amzi! inc.
CyberTax Screen Shot:
Vertec Solutions Logo:
Amzi! Logo:
Amzi! inc.
47 Redwood Road
Asheville, NC 28804 U.S.A.
+1-828-350-0350
www.amzi.com