One of the Department’s most popular programs is the Electronic Filing Program. E-filing provides taxpayers with an instant acknowledgment that their return has been received, real-time editing to detect common filing and payment errors and the potential to receive a refund faster. More than one million taxpayers filed their 2000 return electronically, an increase of 55% over the previous year. Additionally, 9,000 taxpayers utilized another electronic filing option to request a personal income tax extension.

Direct deposits of PIT refunds into taxpayer bank accounts has helped expedite refund issuance and eliminate the possibility of lost or stolen checks. In SFY 99-00, approximately 735,000 personal income tax refunds were directly deposited into taxpayer bank accounts, representing nearly 13% of all personal income tax refunds.

The increased use of imaging technology to process withholding tax payments has helped reduce the number of data entry errors and provide faster resolution of filing and payment discrepancies.

The Department has implemented an automated process to receive corporation status information from the Department of State. This has eliminated the previous backlog of new corporations waiting to be added to our tax systems.

To help taxpayers obtain necessary forms, instructions and general filing information the Department, in conjunction with the Internal Revenue Service, set up informational touch-screen kiosks in several upstate cities. The kiosk displays included more than 120 current year forms and instructions with printing capabilities for all of the forms and most of the instructions. Taxpayers were also able to display and print out the answers to frequently asked questions.

Enhancements to call center equipment, interactive and self-service applications and extended call center hours enabled nearly two million taxpayers to take advantage of the Department’s refund inquiry service during the 2000 filing season.

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A Corporation Tax Combined Filer Unit was established to provide better service to more than 2,000 parent corporations with more than 18,000 subsidiaries. The unit successfully provided "one-stop shopping" for the resolution of credit and assessment protests and return exceptions. Future enhancements will provide for the identification and resolution of potential problems before returns are fully processed. This will help prevent erroneous assessments and unnecessary adjustments to refunds or credits.

Employers will soon be able to access their account statements online. This will aid in preparing their quarterly reconciliations and prevent payment discrepancies prior to their quarterly filing. This will also allow the Department to resolve payment errors before returns are filed, thereby reducing exceptions and expediting return processing. An online version of the corporation tax account summary is also under development.

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The Department introduced a "Single file" program in April 1999 that allows employers to file one return to report withholding tax, wage reporting and unemployment insurance tax. The report combines reporting and payment requirements to both the Department of Taxation and Finance and the Department of Labor, eliminating approximately 1.8 million separate returns and payments.

Vendors with no reportable sales tax collections are able to file their sales tax returns by phone. Telefiling offers a simple alternative to those taxpayers who would otherwise have to file a paper sales tax return to report that no tax was owed. More than 150,000 telefiles were processes between the program's inception in 1997 and the end of the State Fiscal Year 1999-2000. This service will be expanded to include filing and payment of balances due.

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Representatives from the Department of Taxation and Finance, the Internal Revenue Service, the State University of New York, the State Department of Labor and the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance participated in 2000 in an innovative Welfare-to-Work Project. The project educated taxpayers on the New York Welfare-to-Work Program, the benefits of the Earned Income Credit and other applicable federal and State credits. The Welfare-to-Work initiative is designed to assist individuals on the State’s welfare rolls returning to the workforce by giving them the skills and knowledge necessary in today's job market.

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