Once amendments are detected and merged, the tax officer can open and edit the tax submission in the tax return cockpit in the normal way, unless the original tax submission has created the tax assessment already. The tax assessment, also called the tax bill, is invoiced to the taxpayer, which usually affects the balance of the taxpayer's account. If the tax assessment has been created, the tax officer enters the cockpit in a new mode called 'amendment mode'. As a result, every change towards the tax submission will be influenced by the amendment framework, where configuration, logging and authorization are supported.
The amendment framework is a full set of configurations which influences the way how an amended return can be edited. The functionality is only related to the user interface. The amended tax return still resides in the same tax return table in the system (DFMCA_RETURN).
The diagram shows all configuration elements and its relationship. The configuration path: Financial Accounting → Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable → Business Transactions → Public Sector Tax Assessment → Form Processing → Amendments→ Define Processing Options for Amendments
- Action: It is the smallest entity in the amendment framework. It defines what kind of changes are allowed for the tax officer when they amend the specific form-based process. For example, you can define the action Change Account to enable field change for contract account in tax return process. The action can be treated as one editable field in tax return cockpit.
- Action Group: It groups actions to control what part of a tax submission can be changed with or without change log and special authorization. When the tax officer performs this application in the amendment mode, she or he will be able to execute all actions that are contained in the relevant action group. For example, you can define one action group 'Change Taxpayer Containing All Actions Required' through to 'Change Taxpayer Details'. The action group can be treated as one button, which controls group of editable field in tax return cockpit. A few action groups are hard-coded to change the tax submission as a whole, like straight to zero and void, while other groups are configurable in the system.
- Processing Reason: It serves as the key for a long text that you can use again for the processing of tax returns. If you create a note with reference to a processing reason when processing the tax forms, the long text is copied into the note as a template. You can then change the text before saving the note. The processing reason is to be assigned to the action group. When the action group is saved and requires logging reason, the processing reason can be entered.
- List of Action Group: If you want to make amendment actions available depending on the form status, you first have to group these actions into action groups, then assign this action group to an action group list and finally assign the desired status. The list of action group can be treated as toolbar, which can contain different group of buttons based on form bundle status.
- Reason for Amendment: You can define reasons for amendments that are displayed and ready for entry when the tax officer amends a form bundle of this form-based process. The tax officer can then select one of these reasons.
The sequence of the configuration could be as follows:
- Define Actions
- Define Processing Reasons
- Define Reasons for Amendment
- Define Action Group and Assign Actions and Processing Group to Action Group
- Define List of Action Group and Assign Action Group to List of Action Group
- Assign Action Group List to Status
If you want to make amendment actions available depending on the form status, you first have to group these actions into action groups, then assign this action group to an action group list and finally assign the desired status.
As the configuration framework is introduced to the form bundle, the objects that benefit from the functions are basically not limited to tax returns.
The amendment framework provides a new mode called amendment mode for the tax return cockpit. The framework can be configured that the amendment mode will be entered and the toggle button bar area will be displayed, if a tax assessment has been created for the tax return. The composition of the bar is configurable. This is to ensure that, until a critical update has been made to the tax return, a tax officer can still freely change the return content in the normal edit mode.
The amendment mode is determined dynamically per tax return. The determination logic can be enhanced in PSCD event P285(Determine Amendment Mode) based on customer requirements. SAP delivers two implementations of this event and use FMCA_EVENT_P285_2 as default:
- FMCA_EVENT_P285: the working mode is amendment mode when the submission is already processed or the relevant assessment is printed.
- FMCA_EVENT_P285_2: the working mode is amendment mode when the tax return is invoiced.
Amendment action is the smallest entity of the amendment framework that allows you to define what kind of changes the tax officer can perform when amending a form. Actions are defined for a specific form-based process and they are client-dependent. It includes the following elements when defining an action.
- Action Type: it defines the type of Action, such as change field value, enable toolbar button, and so on. It is defined by SAP and cannot be changed by the customer. The following action type is defined by SAP.
- Enable Field Value Change: Enable change of specified field in tax return Web Dynpro application.
- Enable FPM Function: Enable floor plan manager (FPM) event of tax return Web Dynpro application.
- Enable Button: Enable button for a specified view in tax return Web Dynpro application.
- Enable Date/Time Field change: Enable tax return date change, such as postmark date change.
- Enable DMS edit: Enable the edit mode of the Document Management Service.
- Enable form data change: Enable change of form detail.
- Description: Define the Description of the Action.
- Web Dynpro Component/View/Object: It defined which UI element in Web Dynpro component is used for the action.
The tax officer can enter two types of reasons for amendment in the amendment log.
- Processing Reason: Define reason for this amendment change of the specific action group. You can define a long text as a template then change it when entering the explanation. You can define different reasons and assign to different action group.
- Reason for Amendment: Define the reason for the amendment. This applies for all amendment and not action group specific.
In Processing Reason Configuration, you can specify the form-based process, Processing Reason (Short Text) and Long Text Explanation. When the specific action group is saved, the short text will be one of the values in the Processing Reason drop-down list and the long text will be copied into explanation in the amendment log pop-up window. The customer can use that long text as a template to update the content based on their requirements.
The Reason for Amendment configuration includes reason ID, Description, and Sequence Number. The Description will be the text of the radio button in the amendment log. The sequence number determines the sequence of the radio button in the radio button group Reason for Amendment in amendment log. At least one value is to be defined if the amendment log will be used in the business process.
The action group is used to group actions that allows you to make these actions available for a Web Dynpro application. Action groups are defined for a specific form-based process and they are client-dependent. One action group consists of multiple actions. Once the action group is toggled from the user interface, the related actions will be triggered.
The configuration for the Action Group can be as follows:
- Define the Action Group that includes the following options
- Log Change for Amendment Action: If this field is enabled, then the system will check authorization object F_PSFH_AMD before the tax officer can execute any of the actions contained in this action group.
- Authorization Check for Amendment Action: If this field is enabled, the system will log the reason for the amendment and the reason for the action before it updates changes caused by the amendment action to the database.
- Description: description of the Action Group that could be the text of the toggle button.
- Web Dynpro Component/Web Dynpro Window: the Web Dynpro window that will put the toggle buttons.
- Assign the Action to the Action Group
- Assign Processing Reason to the Action Group
Once an action group is toggled, all actions included in the configuration have an effect on the user interface. For example, in action group Change Tax Payer, it assigned the actions Taxpayer Number, Taxpayer ID Type, Taxpayer ID, Contract Account and Registration Number. All those fields in taxpayer cockpit are editable when the Change Taxpayer button is clicked on in amendment mode.
When multiple processing reasons are assigned to the same action group, the process reason short text will appear in the Processing Reason drop-down list in Amendment Log when the action group is saved for change and logging is activated.
The list of action group is the group of the action groups. Depending on the current status of a form bundle, the system will allow to display the relevant action group list only when the tax officer amends the form bundle. If you want to use this feature, you first have to group the desired actions into action groups, then assign the action group to an action group list and finally assign the relevant status.
The configuration of the list of action group is as follows:
- Define a List of Action Group with ID and Description.
- Assign Action Group to the Action Group List.
- Assign Action Group List to Status. One action group list can be assigned to one tax return status (and user status).
