Tax Information Group for EDI Requirements Standardization
[For additional background click here: Electronic Standards Cooperation]FTA participates in joint government-industry efforts to "lower the bar" for participants in electronic commerce.
In 1979 the American National Standards Committee (ANSI) created an "Accredited Standards Committee" (ASC), denoted "X12", that addresses business-to-business exchange of electronic documents in a standard format.
Since 1988 the FTA, as well as a number of state revenue departments, have become members of ANSI ASC X12 and have assisted in creating a variety of tax-related standard electronic transactions.
TIGERS (Tax Information Group for E-commerce Requirements Standardization) was formed in October 1994 by FTA, the states, the IRS, and business and service provider representatives, initially to provide an overall coordinative body for advice and counsel on government technical implementation of American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-based tax-related electronic data interchange applications.
The TIGERS initiative is modeled on previous successful industry-cooperation models in the petroleum, pharmaceutical, power, and other industry sectors. It began with efforts to model standard transactions in the area of electronic data interchange (EDI), and is now involved in similar initiatives for eXtensible Markup Language (XML), in cooperation with the IRS and industry partners.
TIGERS seeks to ensure success by providing a forum for users to regularly meet together and agree upon on "conventions" for the national-standard formatting of electronic business data. For example, it develops agreements on data formats, the names of data items (Name, Address, etc.) and the like within tax-related electronic transmissions for the tax administration industry, and publishes the results of these agreements. This is done in full support of ANSI ASC X12 efforts, and under its umbrella.
Created by voluntary teams of business specialists and technical personnel from varied government and industry participants, the aim is to ensure that these data format and identification agreements are ultimately in agreement with and are vetted through ASC X12, and are widely used and adhered to by governments and businesses which wish to trade together.
The goal is to achieve significant uniformity and consistency in how standard transactions such as tax returns and other transactions are treated within the tax administration community. This greatly lowers the cost to all parties in understanding, documenting, and applying technology, leading to maximum business benefit for every trading partner involved.
Third party service providers such as software companies which can facilitate electronic trade are particularly advantaged, as this enables them to deliver services and products faster and more economically to their customers.
[FTA follows this same approach in other non-ASC X12 tax industry-specific efforts it pursues, such as consistency and uniformity in the creation and maintenance of 2-D Barcoding tax administration standards. For 2-D Barcoding standards click here.]
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
MEETINGS
TIGERS meets 6 times annually. Each participating entity pays its own way, and FTA contributes resources to support TIGERS as appropriate. TIGERS meets during the X12 Trimester sessions (always the first full week of February and June, and generally the last week of September).
It also meets in between each of these sessions (TIGERS Interim meetings) . Generally the interim meetings are held in March or April, in August (following the FTA Annual Technology Conference), and in December (a state tax agency or an industry participant may offer space for the meeting).COST
Each individual participant representing an ASC X12 non-member wishing to attend ASC X12 Trimester work sessions must pay a registration fee, currently $895 per meeting. There is no Trimester session registration fee for up to 3 ASC X12 member representatives ($1575 per year dues cover the fee). This fee was recently reduced from $3000 annually and is designed as an incentive to state government agencies to join X12.
Membership is available to individuals, associations, corporations, and government entities.
Non-members may actively participate in and vote on matters coming before X12 Task Groups, but not before any higher-level X12 body. (contact the Data Interchange Standards Association, Secretariat for ASC X12, for further details on standards approval processes).
There is a moderate registration fee, designed to cover costs (under $100) to attend and participate in the Interim (non-X12 Trimester) meetings that are arranged by FTA.
PARTICIPATION
Participation in TIGERS and the other organizations is for the greater part open to anyone in government, service providers, tax filers/ representatives, and others.
PROCESS
The process involves identifying and considering all parties' business needs, in order to arrive at consensus-based implementation decisions in which:
• All parties have a voice
• Any recommended changes to standards are pursued through ASC X12G-TG2/TIGERS.
Decisions are driven by:
• Acceptability - to participants/users
• Implementability - providing practicality and "fit" with business need
• Supportability - with appropriate publication and distribution of conventions and guidelines.
The TIGERS Chair is Ms. Terry Garber with the South Carolina Dept. of Revenue. She may be contacted at garbert@sctax.org.
For further information, contact jonathan.lyon@taxadmin.org.
Page updated June 13, 2006