The Department of Technology Services (DTS) now operates and maintains the Tax Commission's automated systems. It also develops and installs new automated systems to meet specialized demands. In addition, DTS provides service to internal customers through a system-wide "help desk."
During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $10,278,100 from all sources for Technology Management. This is a 0.7 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources. The total includes $6,943,900 from the General/Education Funds, an increase of 0.8 percent from revised Fiscal Year 2015 estimates.
In addition to statewide compensation and internal service fund cost increases, the following appropriation adjustments were made during the 2015 General Session:
The Technology Management Division deals with systems that handle over 2 million electronically filed documents, as well as upkeep and management of the databases related to over 7 million tax returns, payments, and transactions each year.
The Tax Commission continues to modernize tax and motor vehicle systems and processes. New funding to replace the state's core tax systems was initiated in 2006 with a one-time appropriation of $7 million to DTS. During the 2007 General Session, project funding included $5 million as part of the total payment towards replacing the existing system, and during the 2008 General Session another $6 million was appropriated for the project. The total vendor cost to replace the existing core systems was $22.5 million, with $4.5 million of this stemming from savings from other areas of the Tax Commission's appropriations. This project has included the replacement of the automated systems used to process, record, and distribute sales tax, income tax, employer withholding tax, corporate tax, motor and special fuel taxes, and other miscellaneous taxes.
Chronology of Implementation:
- January 2007 - Replacement of the income tax system
- March 2008 - Sales tax system
- March 2009 - Corporate withholding, streamlined sales tax
- April to December 2009 - Taxpayer Access Portal for Income & Sales
- January 2010 to June 2012 - Fuel taxes and miscellaneous taxes
- FY 2012 - Several additional "Miscellaneous" tax systems have been updated
- July 2012 to October 2013 - Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Enforcement systems
- November 2013 - November 2014 - Imaging and remittance processing
Other initiatives pursued by the Tax Commission include the expanded use of online filing, scanning or image-lifting technology to electronically extract return information, and designing systems so that "data warehousing" of taxpayer information can be accomplished. Strategic use of new technologies allows the agency to improve its processes and assists in providing quality customer service to taxpayers and vehicle owners.
All of these improvements will provide better tools to assist taxpayers in tax compliance and make the processing and verification of taxpayer information more efficient. Improvements are expected to continue until all systems and processes have been updated. It should be noted that Technology Management employees are now classified as part of the Department of Technology Services workforce.
The Technology Management Division is funded from 4 primary sources, the General Fund, Education Fund, Transportation Fund and the Tax Commission Administrative Charge Restricted Account.
COBI contains unaudited data as presented to the Legislature by state agencies at the time of publication. For audited financial data see the State of Utah's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.