Remember those days of filling out tax returns by hand, using calculators to add up all the numbers, reviewing the returns to make sure the arithmetic was correct and then mailing those forms after attaching the proper forms together? Some of you may still be filling out tax returns by hand. Others might be taking all of your documents to an accountant to do the heavy lifting. But if you are using approved software for your taxes, the task is not so cumbersome.
These days, most tax preparers use software to make the process easier. Warnings pop up to ensure proper forms are filled out based on Internal Revenue Service requirements. It’s like an assembly line of workers inside the computer putting together your return. Last year’s information will populate the new form and the software allows a preparer to file electronically, saving time and costs for the preparer and the IRS. By using the software, IRS compliance increases dramatically based on a built-in system to avoid mistakes.
Now is the time for servicers to plan ahead with built-in systems that are going to ensure loans are in compliance, because auditors today need proof ahead of conjecture that loans meet rapidly evolving standards. Times are getting tough for servicers to ensure that all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed, and even more so for problem loans.
Servicers can no longer sample one-in-100 loans—or one-in-10 loans for that matter—for compliance cases, because auditors are focusing on every loan and audits could range from three to more than 30 in a year.
Auditors are no longer looking at sample files to make sure all loans are compliant. They demand proof, and the proof is in planning a built-in system that ensures accuracy and compliance for every single loan in their shop and automatically record a complete audit trail. The key to providing this type of proof easily and readily is to make the process effortless.
