OT at Tax Dept., up 506 percent this year, got some attention

The state Department of Taxation and Finance officials continued to be reluctant to fully discuss the problems with paper tax return processing but began to tell a little more after being confronted with overtime data collected from the Office of the State Comptroller by the Times Union. The department said filers still waiting should get refunds by early August. Some have been waiting since February.

Given a day to look at this material below obtained by the Times Union from the Office of the State Comptroller after an official request and reported in the paper on July 4, the department released a statement just at deadline on July 3. They were sent this data the afternoon of July 2 and asked to comment:

OT at Tax & Finance
January ? June 2012:
$325,504
9,304 hours

January ? June 2013:
$1,973,382
57,698 hours

This statement came forth from spokesman Geoffrey Gloak, in which he continued to talk about the entire universe of person income tax returns, including the electronically filed ones, where the big problems have not been identified as a result of a new contract with the New York State Industries for the Disabled and their for-profit partner SourceHOV:

?The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance today issued an update on refunds for the 2012 income tax season.

Thus far, 5.95 million refunds have been issued this year representing $5.3 billion ? a dollar-for-dollar increase of 3% over last year at this time.

Overall, more than 96 percent of all refunds have been issued, and the remaining refunds are being delivered daily.

By law, refunds that are issued after May 30 for timely-filed returns include interest payments. Interest is paid only on that part of the refund resulting from over-withholding.

As a result of a new contractor for processing income tax returns, refunds for some taxpayers who submitted paper returns have been delayed.

To prioritize delivery of refunds, the Tax Department is assisting the vendor to both speed processing and provide quality assurance. Recovery of the Department?s costs associated with this effort ? including staff over time and interest payments ? is provided for in the contract, and will not come at additional taxpayer expense.

Outstanding returns filed by April 15 will be filled by early August.

E-filing Increases
This year, nearly 90% of taxpayers filed their returns electronically ? up from 87% last year and only 58% just five years ago.

E-filing is the safest and fastest way to file a return and receive a refund, and it saves taxpayer dollars. Since 2008, New Yorkers have saved more than $250 million in processing costs as a result of e-filing.

For more information
Taxpayers can check the status of their refunds at www.tax.ny.gov or call 518-457-5181 to talk with a Department representative.?

Source: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/190778/overtime-at-the-state-tax-department-506-percent-up-this-year-got-some-attention/

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