THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 1, 1994 TAG: 9411010005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
I'd like to advise the public of a situation that will affect all citizens who file taxes in Virginia. The governor has indicated that he is studying the feasibility of moving the filing of all state income tax to the Department of Taxation in Richmond.
If a taxpayer files with Richmond and there is a mistake on the return, it is placed in ``error inventory,'' to be corrected at some later date. The taxpayer is then surprised to receive either a letter or phone call up to three months after filing.
If the return is filed with the local commissioner of the revenue, our tax auditors carefully check the return. Even though the person may have filed correctly, the auditor will check to see if changing the filing status or shifting deductions lowers legal tax liability. This past year in Norfolk alone, more than 200 residents had their refunds increased or the amount of tax owed decreased so that more than $40,000 was returned to the taxpayers.
Eight jurisdictions of Hampton Roads - Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Newport News, Hampton and Isle of Wight County - have joined in this effort to better serve the taxpayer. The jurisdictions have a direct line to the Department of Taxation. This allows not only direct access to tax-return information but also allows local authorization to issue refund checks from the state treasury, decreasing refund-processing time to less than two weeks for qualifying residents.
The result is that almost 77 percent of taxpayers filed through the local office of the commissioner of the revenue. We interpret this to mean that our citizens do not want to deal with a state ``IRS'' but want to talk with a human being who can resolve their problems without a series of letters to unnamed people or toll calls to Richmond, only to have to leave a message on a recorder.
I ask all taxpayers to advise the governor's office that they want this service left with the localities.
SAM T. BARFIELD
Commissioner of the revenue
Norfolk, Oct. 25, 1994 by CNB