French Tax Portal Reaches Design Stage

[London, ENGLAND] By May 2001, all French firms will have to
submit tax returns via the Internet — and ASP-One Europe
has won a contract worth US $13 million to implement the system.

ASP-One’s agreement is a five-year contract with the French
Council of the Order of Charter Accountants (Conseil Supérieur
de l’Ordre des Experts-Comptables); the mission is to provide
accounting firms with a single, secure, Internet portal for
electronic transmission of all tax and payroll submissions
in France.

Henri Ganancia, president of ASP-One, said the project illustrates
just how powerful a business tool the Internet has become.

“This venture shows ASPs can work on large scale projects,” said
Ganancia, refuting claims to the contrary.

The new tax portal will be aimed at around 100,000 accounting
professionals who in turn provide services to more than a million
companies. ASP-One will look after overall project management,
production and operation, while other companies will also be
involved in various aspects of the project.

Euroview will provide development and integration assistance
Pagemed is scheduled to undertake Web portal development, Ackia
is providing advice on ergonomics, and Almacom is contributing
teleprocessing technology.

ASP-One itself will be responsible for qualification, certification,
service quality, billing and user support. Its data center will
automatically date and process the information, issue a time-stamped
receipt, and sort and distribute the returns to the proper
authorities.

The end result, say the experts, will be faster, more secure and
more accurate tax filing for French businesses. That is just as
well, as tax filing over the Internet will become compulsory
for all French companies with annual earnings of more than
US $13 million.

With deadlines already looming, ASP-One Europe will need to pull out
all stops to complete the work on time. French companies will have
access to the system and ASP-One’s data submission program during
May.