Iowa’s E-File Success Story
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Transcript of Iowa’s E-File Success Story
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Iowa’s E-File Success StoryPaul E. Benson
Taxpayer Services Manager
MSATA 2006
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Business eFile & Pay Overview
Why did we consider eFile & Pay? Past success with E-Filing of individual
income tax returns Beneficial to taxpayers and department We saw the potential in expanding Wanted voluntary compliance
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Business eFile & Pay Overview
Questions asked included: How to simplify tax filings and collections How to create efficiencies within Revenue How to change the way we transact
business These questions resulted in a 3 year
study which generated even more questions…
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Business eFile & Pay Overview
Questions from the E-Commerce study: How do we market our service? How do we educate our customers? How will we answer their questions? How do we convince them to use eFile & Pay? Will the users, and the department, accept
the change? The decision was made to move forward.
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Business eFile & Pay Overview
eFile & Pay required department changes. Resources were investigated & obtained Shifts in the budget were negotiated Marketing & educational strategies were
developed A new unit was formed & trained All of this occurred while the former filing
process remained in place
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Business eFile & Pay Overview
This overview will describe the strategies that were developed and implemented, including: Creation of the new eFile Service Unit Benefits realized by businesses - and
us Marketing & education initiatives Use of incentives not mandates
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Why Not Mandate? Factors considered:
What would be acceptable to customers? Wanted cooperation, not a mandate
What would policy makers want? No real pressure from legislature
Our success with income tax E-Filing Estimate 67% participation rate this year
Experiences of other states
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Why Not Mandate? Decision was made against mandating
No penalties at this time No returns mailed to permit holders Payment vouchers are mailed Withholding quarterly returns: Web site
only Sales & Use quarterly returns: Web site
only
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Implementation Timeline developed:
Withholding tax in January 2005 Sales & Retailers Use tax in July 2005 Consumers Use tax in October 2005 Withholding VSPs in January 2006 LPG in March 2006 Motor Fuel in July 2006
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eFile Service Unit A new unit was needed.
Decided to place it in Taxpayer Services Education & assistance would be the emphasis Unit could evolve into other areas in the future
Program Manager hired in August 2004 Rest of the unit hired in November 2004 Training occurred until January 2005
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eFile Service Unit Duties of this unit would be:
Answer phone calls Respond to emails Help walk-in customers Help with testing and system
development Input on letters, emails, Web site, etc.
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eFile Service Unit All “new” employees eliminated the risk
of reducing current level of customer service. Originally had 1 manager, 4 full time plus 6
temporary employees. Also added 4 full time backups and 13
emergency backups when needed Wanted adequate phone coverage 1st year
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eFile Service Unit The temporary employees were
originally hired to work the first year while call volume would be high. Two of them worked for 18 months
This would leave a permanent staff capable of handling the level of service needed in the future.
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eFile Service Unit Currently eSU consists of:
1 Program Manager 1 Taxpayer Service Specialist 6 Administrative Assistants 4 emergency backups
We hope to eliminate the backups soon and rely on a permanent staff of 8 or 9.
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Marketing & Education We needed to market & promote.
It would need to be a department wide effort
Who do we target? How do we get the message to them? How do we educate the businesses? What can we do to make this transition
as simple as possible?
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Marketing & Education eFile Governance Team was
formed. The team would oversee the program Consisted of the Director and
managers from most department divisions
Marketing and education plans were developed
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Marketing & Education Mailings:
First attempt to communicate with businesses
Letters sent out 2 months before each tax type went live in eFile & Pay
Withholding letters sent in November 2004 Sales/Use letters sent in May 2005
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Marketing & Education Press Conferences:
Given by the Director of Revenue to alert media the month before each tax went live
TV stations & newspapers picked up the story
Withholding tax in December 2004 Sales/Use tax in June 2005
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Marketing & Education BEN Letters:
Business E-file Number Number used to access eFile & Pay Each business has 1 BEN for all tax types Letter also provided information on accessing
the system, use of the BEN and how to complete their returns electronically
Actual Web site screen shots were included
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Marketing & Education Telephone Scripts:
Developed for businesses that elected to transmit by telephone
Scripts detailed each step of the process Feedback from the scripts has been
positive Provide 18 different phone scripts
8 for withholding tax 10 for sales & use taxes
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Marketing & Education Presentations:
Offered statewide over a two week period Postcards with dates & times mailed to each
withholding agent and sales tax permit holder Done when majority of businesses would be
using the system for the first time 5 Field Taxpayer Service Specialists presented 70 presentations with 4,400 in attendance
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Marketing & Education eLists:
Department has 7 different eLists Use as a communication tool eLists were used 15 times to send out
information regarding eFile & Pay Sent to taxpayers, practitioners &
government entities
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Marketing & Education Reminder Letters:
Mailed to selective businesses Sent as the quarterly due date drew
near Targeted to businesses that had not
yet accessed the eFile & Pay system
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Marketing & Education Web site:
Enhanced to offer as much info as possible Copies of all correspondence (BEN,
reminder) All eFile & Pay presentations (pdf format) PowerPoints showing the screen shots FAQ’s Other miscellaneous items
Pay options, browser info, due dates, holidays…
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Marketing & Education Summary:
70 presentations to 4,400 participants 2 postcard mailings 2 press conferences & articles to the media 15 eLists sent 21 letters generated 12 online PowerPoint presentations Expanded Web site with 30 files of eFile & Pay
info
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Results Methods of using eFile & Pay:
90% of businesses use Web application Remaining 10% use the telephone We anticipate continued Web growth Telephone option will always be
necessary Application down Business PC down Business has no Web access
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Results Electronic Payments:
Over 80% of total money received is sent electronically
Only about 50% of the transactions are electronic
These percents will increase as businesses become more comfortable using the eFile & Pay system
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Results Three major concerns were
answered: Receipts remain steady & timely
Hasn’t been an issue Delinquency rates
They are actually lower Quality of information is consistent
Especially important regarding the local option sales taxes that are reported
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Results Benefits to the department:
Thousands of returns are no longer processed manually
Electronic review replaced manual review
Money is transferred more quickly into the state’s general fund
Record storage is reduced and retrieval is quicker & simpler
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Goal of eFile & Pay70% Participation rate after one
year
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Impact on Business Tax Filings Far better than expected.
Filing for businesses has been simplified
eSU exists to address their questions Volume of E-returns exceeded our
goal
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Impact on Business Tax Filings For the quarter ending 03/31/06:
98% of withholding tax returns filed through eFile & Pay
95% of sales and use tax returns filed through eFile & Pay
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Impact on Withholding Tax Percent of electronic returns by
quarter: March 2005: 87.7% June 2005: 89.6% September 2005: 90.8% December 2005: 97.2% March 2006: 98.3%
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Impact on Sales/Use Tax Percent of electronic returns by
quarter: September 2005: 90.6% December 2005: 92.3% March 2006: 95.3%
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Conclusion We believe education and marketing
helped make eFile & Pay a success. Permanent staff, temporary
employees & department wide backups gave us the customer support we needed. With all available people we could have
up to 41 on the phones
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Phone Statistics Fiscal Year 2006 ACD Phone Call
Volume Total calls: 117,063 Highest volume week: 7,169 (10/24 to
10/28/2005) Highest volume day: 1,737 (10/31/05) Average week: 2,251 Average day: 465
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Phone Statistics Ratio of Transactions to Phone
Calls July 2005 through March 2006
5.4 Quarterly Returns per phone call
9.2 Returns/Payments per phone call
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Phone Calls Received by QuartereFile Service Unit
19,318
22,266
31,62229,900
21,599
33,942
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
40,000
Mar-05 Jun-05 Sep-05 Dec-05 Mar-06 Jun-06
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E-Mail Received by QuartereFile Service Unit
3,064
2,211
4,084
5,326
5,676
3,749
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
Mar-05 Jun-05 Sep-05 Dec-05 Mar-06 Jun-06
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Conclusion Through the use of technology:
Improved customer service Reduced the taxpayer’s burden Promoted voluntary compliance Created efficiencies within the
department.
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Conclusion Still things to do…
Increase % of electronic payments Businesses eFile return but remit paper
check Need to raise their comfort level
Continue to make enhancements Based on customer feedback Several enhancements made in April 2006
Work on nonfilers Reminder emails & letters after due date
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CONTACT INFORMATION Paul Benson, Taxpayer Services
Manager Desk: 515.281.8966 Fax: 515.242.6487 Email: [email protected]
Web site: www.state.ia.us/tax