ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 11, 1996 TAG: 9603110021
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
If you live in Roanoke County, filing your federal and state income tax returns this year may be as simple as a trip to the commissioner of revenue's office.
In a partnership with the state and the Internal Revenue Service, Virginia localities can act as middlemen between residents and state and federal taxing agencies by filing returns electronically.
Roanoke County is the first Western Virginia locality to start the program.
Roanoke County residents turn in their prepared federal and state forms to the Roanoke County Commissioner of Revenue's office. That office punches the data into its computer system and sends it on to a software company that compresses the information and relays it to the IRS' Richmond office. The state Taxation Department uses that data for state income tax returns.
The electronic filing cuts as much as a month from the time that it would normally take to receive refunds.
In the past, state tax returns took between six and eight weeks to be processed, said Gail MacFarland, Roanoke County income tax coordinator.
Now, "they're getting their check within about 10 days," MacFarland said.
And federal returns that normally took about the same amount of time are taking between two and three weeks with electronic filing, said the state's electronic filing coordinator, Susan Andrews.
The state Taxation Department used its own employees in a pilot program last year, Andrews said. This year, localities that met equipment requirements and other qualifications have begun the program.
Roanoke County has been filing state income tax returns for as long as Commissioner of Revenue Wayne Compton can remember.
Under a statewide program called Accelerated Refund, Roanoke County began sending state tax returns electronically two years ago. But, the state actually started the program in 1990, Andrews said.
There is a $20 fee for electronic filing, though. Compton said the fee goes to pay for the labor for someone having to punch the data into a computer and for the software that the county had to purchase to get started. But in a few years, digital scanners should be able to record the information faster.
Not every taxpayer can qualify for electronic filing.
Those most likely to qualify are people expecting a refund who are filing simple tax returns with few changes in such information as home address and telephone number.
So far, electronic filing has been fairly popular among those who do file their taxes with the Roanoke County Commissioner of Revenue, Compton said.
Last year, nearly 11,000 returns out of 21,000 in the county were filed electronically through the Accelerated Refund program, Compton said. He has seen comparable statistics under the new "piggy-backing" of federal and state returns.
Roanoke city began the Accelerated Refund program last year. Roanoke Commissioner of Revenue Marsha Compton Fielder said her office began filing state returns for the first time two years ago.
Fielder said she hopes Roanoke can file both state and federal tax returns as early as 1997.
"I think it's going to be a standard process in a few years," Compton said.
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