This one is both Cool and Cheap. The California Franchise Tax Board’s legal department found itself in an awkward position: more appeals than it could handle and a budget that had dried up. Executives decided they could no longer afford to fund their normal summer intern program. Then they realized they could offer something more precious than pay – practical work experience for fledgling lawyers. They notified law school career centers and the word spread, no doubt helped by the lack of paying summer jobs. This year the FTB received 134 applications for 8 unpaid internships. One key to the success of the program is that “we treat them like they are attorneys – we give them cases immediately to work, and not just random research memos or ministerial tasks… they get to handle the entire case.” Less experienced students get less complex cases, but all get to do real lawyering. The interns file regular appeal briefs, reviewing the audit file and working up a brief that can serve as an official writing sample for future jobs. The FTB gets more in return than free help. The agency has hired several of the interns as fulltime attorneys, and says it helps to develop a collegial relationship with all interns because many of them likely will be back as taxpayer representatives. Unions haven’t objected because no jobs are being forfeited. Executives say the other key that makes the program work is their strong mentoring program. The interns have said that they appreciate the guidance from their mentors, especially since their friends who are interning at law firms “can’t get the time of day” from their bosses. The mentors also file paperwork that earns the interns course credit, when it’s available. (One student avoided paying for nearly a semester of law school through the program.) Interns are treated as regular employees in all ways but pay, getting a background check, signing confidentiality agreements and receiving disclosure training.
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The Louisiana Department of Revenue later this week plans to launch a new audit dispute resolution process for state taxpayers. Starting July 1, the Audit Protest Bureau (APB) - an independent unit of the Department of Revenue staffed and managed by legal and tax administration experts who are trained in dispute resolution - will work with the parties to resolve audit protests in a timely manner. "APB's purpose is to resolve tax-related disputes at the earliest opportunity," Secretary of Revenue Cynthia Bridges said in a news release. "This is the first step in a process to find an equitable solution for both parties without resorting to costly and time-consuming litigation." The audit-protest process works in three steps: (1) When a proposed tax assessment is issued but before formal assessments, APB will have control of the audit-protest process; (2) Taxpayers wishing to dispute an assessment must file a protest with APB; and (3) APB determines the facts, identifies unresolved issues and renders a written determination. Any taxpayer who wishes to dispute a tax assessment issued because of an audit must file a written protest with APB within 30 days; the protest petition form will be available July 1 on the department's Tax Forms page at www.revenue.louisiana.gov.
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As a special treat, this week’s Cool Idea is a compilation of clever amnesty slogans collected recently by Delaware. Not all of these were adopted, but all are fun:
* To err is human, to forgive is … temporary
* Don’t whine, pay in ‘09
* Things could get scary on Halloween
* No tax. It’s a good thing. (Borrowed from Martha Stewart.)
* Who gonna call? Taxbuster.
* Pay us back and receive some slack
* Pay the tax. Penalty and interest get the ax.
* Made a mistake? Don't miss this break!
* Don't wait...until it's too late!
* You’ll feel inspired by “No P & I required”
* Now work with us and avoid the fuss
* Do what’s right and sleep better at night
* Don’t say we didn’t warn you
* Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide
* Pay the tax or pay the max
* Get caught up before you get caught
* Pay now or really pay later
* No penalty, no interest, no problem
* Save some money to spend on your honey
* You’ll love the smell of Amnesty in the morning
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Missouri Treasurer Clint Zweifel has developed a paperless system for returning unclaimed property, according to the Associated Press. Most unclaimed assets are for less than $250 and consist of cash from bank accounts, stocks, bonds and the contents of safety deposit boxes; with the new system the treasurer's office now can process most claims for $250 or less using paperless forms and cut the average wait time for getting the property to about 15 days.
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This one comes out of India, where the prime minister has just awarded his Award for Excellence to G T Venkateshwar Rao for “path-breaking, innovative and exceptional work.” The project: an integrated taxpayer data management system that is said to be “perhaps the largest data mining installation using non-unique identity parameters (name, address, etc.) in government in India.” In non-geek speak, it means the program works even when the data sources don’t use the same taxpayer identifier, answering the vexing question of “what do we do when we can’t identify someone by a Social Security number, or a standard address?” After that, the new Indian system is not dissimilar to large data warehouses in the states. This one is designed to “simplify both the collection and analysis of data from different sources, even when it arrives in different structures and formats” and to “create a holistic view of the financial affairs of individuals and groups.” The team created a customized name search engine that was tested as a pilot for a year before being released on the full project.
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The Virginia Department of Taxation has created a Future Vision Initiative that fights the silo mentality and seeks to bring together workers from across the agency to both identify needs and determine “real life solutions” to problems. The initiative seeks to deal with the changing world and its cultures. The Future Vision team has supported or initiated programs that include marketing for last year’s amnesty, designing a live chat service, adding translation features and a Spanish language feature to the public website, and outreach to civic and social cultural groups (such as working with the Asian Chamber of Commerce to provide information for small business owners). The team is working on a redesign of the public website to make it more navigable, and even prompted an internal policy change that permits casual dress throughout the week, where appropriate.
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A Virginia IT executive calls this one “the best $1,000 we’ve ever spent.” The Virginia Department of Taxation invested that amount on an online chat device with an instant messenger function that has cut the agency’s Web-filing-related calls from taxpayers by 70 percent. The agency introduced the device, made by PHP Live, on a pilot basis last July in anticipation of an upcoming amnesty. It took only an hour to train the assisters, and downloading the software to the state computer was “lightning fast.” Assisters now can help up to four taxpayers simultaneously. While the taxpayer is typing in a question or formulating a response, the assister can turn his or her attention to another client. About 10 workers handle 500 to 600 chats a day. The assistant tax commissioner for the state Office of Technology, Sharon Kitchens, said most of the filing season chats relate to the Department of Taxation’s online filing process. Because the chat tool already is at maximum capacity, the agency hasn’t marketed the option. Taxpayers only discover the chat function when they go to the agency website. The agency will get a more powerful tool next January and plans then to begin pushing the new tool.
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The Mississippi State Tax Commission (now the Department of Revenue) has expanded its acceptance of credit card payments and e-checks, with service fee costs paid by the taxpayer. The new emphasis has reduced the number of bad checks received and allows the taxpayer to use self-service options in paying their liabilities. Credit card revenue has doubled in twelve months. The agency uses a third-party processor, who provides electronic files that are imported into agency systems to reduce processing associated with the payments.
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South Carolina is in the middle of integrating its tax systems and its “youngish development team” has created wiki for sharing technical tips and techniques. The agency’s training and user tools also include a wikipedia and related tools. For the not-so-youngish tax administrators, a wiki is an shared or collaborative software program that allows users to contribute to the entries, adding additional information, insights, alerts or clarifications.
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Legislation is moving in Kentucky that would allow the Department of Revenue to include examples in its regulations and guidance. Practitioners have been asking for examples but the Department of Revenue says it lacks the statutory authority to include them. Examples would include “demonstrative and nonexclusive lists” whenever “the Department determines such lists would be helpful to taxpayers.”
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Indiana has created a New and Small Business Education Center on its website. The goal is to “help you better understand state laws, the tax-filing process, and what services are available to help you as your business evolves.” The site includes a monthly podcast – this month’s featured topic is “find out the do’s and don’ts of completing the Department’s Withholding Tax Form (WH-1).” Taxpayers who start at the main page then choose from one of five categories: sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, nonprofit and “not sure.” (That site directs the taxpayer to consult a lawyer or contact the nearest Indiana Small Business Development Center, and offers links to educational sites that can help.) The page lets taxpayers sign up for email and wireless updates and includes FAQs, as well as handy links to reference resources and forms. Check it out at http://www.in.gov/dor/3939.htm.