KENTUCKY DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
WINNER OF
2016 FTA AWARD FOR COMPLIANCE

 
WASHINGTON, D.C. (FEBRUARY 8, 2016).  The Kentucky Department of Revenue’s Computer Assisted Collection System is winner of the 2016 FTA Award for Collections.
 
The award will be presented at the FTA Annual Meeting, June 12-15 in Annapolis, Md. Kentucky has been invited to present the details of its program during the Compliance breakout.
 
Judges were Harley Duncan, KPMG; Clare Calaby, IRS; and Lila Disque, Multistate Tax Commission.
 
When the collections caseload more than doubled between FY 2010 and BY 2014 – the result of a focus on improving compliance, legislation that directed Kentucky to collect other government agency debts and the economic downturn – the agency had to find a way to perform its work with existing staffing.  It looked for greater flexibility to automate processes and better capability to score and prioritize caseloads. 
 
The result was to transfer a mainframe collections tool to an online tool. The agency was able to automatically issue final notices and levies on active cases. Routine tasks and alerts are now automated. Taxpayers can enjoy a self-service portal. Workers can use flexible correspondence templates. When a taxpayer has more than one kind of overdue tax (such as sales and employee withholding), cases can be combined. Because many processes are now automated, collectors have more time for taxpayer service. Kentucky has new authority to revoke or suspend professional licenses, vehicle registration and driver’s licenses where other forms of collection have not been successful. The necessary notices to the taxpayer can now be issued in a controlled volume using separate letter templates, with accompanying letters to the appropriate licensing board.
 
Kentucky plans for improvement in coming months includes the ability to allow taxpayers to make secure credit card payments on their pay plans.
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About the organization. The Federation of Tax Administrators is a nonprofit association composed of the taxation and revenue agencies in the 50 states, District of Columbia, New York City and Philadelphia. Its principal programs are rooted in information exchange, training and intergovernmental coordination. Its mission is to improve the standards and methods of tax administration.

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