TAXPAYERS COULD GET QUICK REFUNDS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 2, 1992                   TAG: 9201020112
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short
TAXPAYERS COULD GET QUICK REFUNDS
If a pilot program is successful, many taxpayers could get nearly instant refunds on state income taxes.
Thousands of city residents will use computerized return labels to mail in their state tax forms this spring.
The computerized system will allow processors to mail refund checks the same day the state receives a tax return, state Tax Commissioner William Forst said.
"There are very few things tax collectors do that make people happy," Forst said. "This is one of them."
If successful, the program would be expanded throughout Virginia. Forst predicts the program will put refund checks in taxpayers' hands a week or more before they normally would.
People who cannot use the preprinted label because they moved or changed their name will have to wait longer.
About 26,000 taxpayers were eligible for refunds last year, about 65 percent of the taxpaying public, said city Commissioner of Revenue Robert Vaughan.
The key to the program is a new computer link between Virginia Beach and Richmond.
When Vaughan receives a return, the information will be typed into his computer the same day. It will then be transmitted instantly to Richmond. At the end of the business day, the state's computers will be told to print refund checks for all tax returns it got that day.
The only cost for the program will be about $200 for new computer cables, Vaughan said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB