eTax services in Hawaii: Lessons Learned

FTA Technology ConferenceDenver, Colorado

Summer 2011

Hawaii Services/ Lessons Learned

Overview• Introduction• History/ Background• Existing eServices• New services/ updates• Questions

Who Am I?

Russell Castagnaro, GM

Revised: 11/05/2010

• General Manager – eHawaii.gov• President of Hawaii Information Consortium, LLC

What is HIC?

Revised: 11/05/2010

• Hawaii Information Consortium, LLC• Subsidiary of NIC Inc (NASDAQ: eGov)• 20 employees, 37 partners• Over 80 public applications• 100% Government Focus• Processed over $780M payments and 2M transactions last year

NIC Portal States

Revised: 11/05/2010

How we started?

Realization

1997

Legislation• 1998, 2000 & 2007

RFPs to manage the eHawaii.gov• 1999• 2007

What makes up eHawaii.gov?

Access Hawaii Committee

State, Federal and County Partners

Hawaii Information Consortium, LLC

Businesses

Citizens

What We Do

Whole Lifecycle Web Applications• eCommerce/ eGovernment Applications• High-Value, Public Applications

Web Site Hosting (CMS)

Customer Service (web, phone, email)

Payment Processing (web & OTC)

Form Processing

Marketing/ Outreach

No state

funds were

used to

develo

p these

applicatio

nsHow We Operate

• Self Funded– We get paid via a small per-transaction fee.– No budget requests necessary.– Very clear cash and data flows.– Partner Funds can be used for important stuff.– Support, Upgrades, Customer Support, etc.. are

included.

History: Tax• We have focused on Consumers.

• For Business Activities…– General Excise, Transient Accommodations,

Withholding Taxes

No state

funds were

used to

develo

p these

applicatio

nsExisting eServices

• eFile – http://dotax.ehawaii.gov• Initial Tax Licensing – http://hbe.ehawaii.gov• Tax License Search – http://www.ehawaii.gov/tls• Find My Refund - https://tax.ehawaii.gov/hoihoi• UI tax/ Wage Reporting – http://hui.ehawaii.gov• Compliance Express – http://vendors.ehawaii.gov• Other Cross-Agency Sharing

eFileNet Income Tax• N-3 Declaration of Estimated Income Tax for Corporations and S Corporations :

Voucher 3• N-317 Statement by a Qualified High Technology Business (QHTB)

Business Taxes• G-45 General Excise / Use Tax Return• G-49 Annual Return & Reconciliation of General Excise / Use Tax Return• HW-14 Withholding Tax Return

Payments• N-126E Net Income Tax Payment• GE- VP1 General Excise / Use Tax Payment• WH-VP1 Withholding Tax Payment• ICS-202 Tax Payment Voucher (CBV)• VP-2 Miscellaneous Tax Payment Voucher

Other• A-6 Tax Clearance Application

Intake: Paper v. eFile

eFile Facts/ Factors

• Began in 2002• Marketing limited to occasional PR• No auto-calculation allowed *

Results• Free filings flow in…

No mark

eting allo

wed!

Results

Removed $2.50 Fee

Added Auto-Calc

Added $1.00 Fee

Results• Free filings flow in…

Remove $2.50 Fee

Added Auto-Calc

Added $1.00 Fee

Initial Tax Licenses

Initial Tax Licenses

Tax License Search

Tax Refund Search

UI/ Wage Reporting

UI/ Wage Reporting

Hawaii Compliance Express

Hawaii Compliance Express

• Over 20,000 Tax Clearances Processed Electronically in 2010.

• One virtual certificate = compliance with four agencies.

• Integrated with state’s procurement system.• Saves each vendor about two days.

Research

Tax Clearance: Paper v. HCE

Sort Requests

Deny

Issue

Create Letter

Mail

It is time to work with everyone…

•ConsumersSmall Businesses, Individuals with Rental Property

•ProfessionalsAccountants, Bookkeepers, Law Firms

And..

We apologize for ignoring you so long!

New Services• Bulk GE Tax filings

– October 2012 soft launch– $.50 per filing– Taxpayers have multiple payment options

New Services• Modernized eFiling

– Submit Personal Income Tax electronically via IRS– Replaces existing JELF program– Pilot begins in 2012– Options

• Include bank information.• Send link to taxpayer to pay online.

Enhancements: eFile• Improved UI• More Auto Calculation• New Voucher Payment System• Zero Payment Options• Reminders and Bounce Notices

Partnering with Our Customers

They will help us develop the new services that will make your business easier/ better.

Plan and Design

Make ChangesEvaluate

Gather

Feedback

Data Collection & Sharing

• Positioned well to collect and share data:– Tax Credits, Exemptions– Multi-agency data (collections, research)

Review• The eHawaii.gov program has enabled Tax to

provide many great services.

No state

funds were

used to

develo

p these

applicatio

nsReview

• Tax is focused on improving services to tax preparers and tax payers directly.

• Multiple services reduce the workload on tax and make taxpayers interactions easier.

• Goals for eFiling – 60% of business returns in 2012 – 75% of personal returns in 2013

Questions?

Russell Castagnaro – [email protected]