Notice of Intent to Garnish Missouri Department of Revenue MSATA Conference Presented by Cheryl Bosch August 2013
Notice of Intent to Garnish
Background Information Operating Process Receivables move through billing process in mainframe tax systems Corresponding collection cases in CACSG move through the state assignment process Debts may be: referred to outside collection agency; referred to participating prosecuting attorney; or Coded as difficult to collect
Background Information Operating Process Due to the high volumes of cases, inventory must be prioritized. Some taxpayers do not receive follow up letters or phone calls.
Background Information Operating Process August 2009, initiated garnishments of bank and wages assets, which resulted in increased collections. Obstacles: Time consuming Limited resources No administrative garnishment process in place
Timeline - March 2012 Contractor began working onsite: - Discuss current collection practices - Identify ways to increase collections
Timeline - March 2012 Brainstorming sessions outcome: - Send notices to taxpayers who have asset information stored in Department s data warehouse
Timeline April 2012 Decided to issue a Notice of Intent to Garnish to avoid the actual cost of filing a garnishment.
Timeline April 2012 Notice of Intent to Garnish criteria: Total receivable balance between $1,000 and $5,000 Lien on at least one or more of their outstanding periods Have a bank or wage asset Sources used - IRMF & IRS levy extract data - RemiFance processor - MO Dept of Labor & Industrial RelaKons
Timeline April 2012 Prepared business case: Number of potential taxpayers to receive letter Estimate response rate 20,304 taxpayers $47 million receivables AnKcipated 3% colleckons
Purpose of Notice Provide taxpayer with notification of outstanding balance Provide a detailed breakdown of liabilities Timeline - April 2012
Purpose of Notice Provide tear off voucher Timeline - April 2012
Purpose of Notice Minimize the amount of uncollectable debt prior to the conversion of the new system Timeline - April 2012
Outside Collection Agencies The Department sends difficult to collect debts to collection agencies: Delinquent out-of-state accounts Lower dollar debts Debts DOR attempted to collect without resolution Second placement debts previously with participating prosecuting The Department contracts with two outside colleckon agencies.
Prosecuting Attorney The Department sends difficult to collect debts to participating county prosecuting attorneys: Lower dollar Accounts with unsuccessful attempts to collect
Unsolicited Accounts Non-active accounts with collection agencies and Prosecuting Attorney s resulted in: Taxpayers not contacted No voluntary payments made Timeline - April 2012
Who to Contact Taxpayers with balance due of $1,000 to $5,000 Taxpayers who had asset information available Timeline - April 2012
Data Warehouses Storing wage information: December 2010 Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations May 2012 1099INT October 2012 banking information
Coordination of Efforts Can the delinquent call center handle the increase in calls as result of this notice? Can we timely process: Additional correspondence Payments Return mail received Timeline - April 2012
Timeline May 2012 Approval for new process
Timeline May 2012 Notice of Intent to Garnish generated from CACSG
Timeline May 2012 Request funding for postage
Timeline - June 2012 Developed lead creation process and determined new routing rules to be set up within CACSG for tracking these leads.
Timeline - June 2012 IT staff created new routing rules and collection work flows for the new process in CACSG.
Timeline - July 2012 New process tested 100 letters sent per week; increased to 1,500 per week Expanded the program in June 2013 to include accounts with a balance due of $300 to $1,000.
Timeline - July 2012 Once taxpayers understand the Department will garnish wages they make agreements to pay their debt.
STATS Up-To-Date Letters and Collections
Stats Since July 20, 2012 Sent 51,446 Notices of Intent to Garnish Notices have generated 19,979 phone calls Resolve the debt on 1,596 accounts without payment Established 3,341 payment plans Collected $4.47 million as a result of this notice Originally anticipated a 3% collection rate. The actual collection rate is 9%.
Up-to-Date Implement outbound call campaign Work with RSI to develop a Business Case for sending a Notice of Intent to Garnish to delinquent businesses for sales and employer s withholding tax debts
Up-to-Date Develop a Statement of Account letter to include: Each tax period and outstanding debt Tear off voucher The Department s website and call center phone number Plain talk language
Up-to-Date Calculated the amount of Missouri taxpayers that do not file/pay their income tax in a timely manner Determined that 94% of Missouri taxpayers pay and file on time
Stats 18,588 taxpayers with $96,712,875 in receivables eligible to receive the Statement of Account letter (3% response rate to the notice, this program would generate $2.9 million)
Stats July 30, 2013 Began issuing the Statement of Account letter
Notice of Intent to Garnish Missouri Department Of Revenue MSATA Conference Presented by Cheryl Bosch August 2013