White Paper - New York State Office for the Aging

DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION AND FINANCE
partnership with return preparation companies to expand electronic filing, other
opportunities exist which will enhance service provision and meet customer expectations.
Specifically, focus must be placed on directly accumulating data reported by financial
institutions (1099s) and employers (W2s) to populate electronic returns that can be
accessed electronically. Missing data can then be added by the taxpayer or practitioner
and electronically filed.
Research conducted by the Gartner Group suggests that the Department’s current
multi-channel (electronic, telephonic, direct contact) approach to service delivery as
stated in our strategic plan will be appropriate in a growing, aging, changing State.
While more affluent, technologically competent taxpayers will seek to remain
invisible in their interactions with us, others will need direct care and assistance. While
many aging New Yorkers will experience changes in their lives that result in a changing
relationship with DTF, others may be unwilling or unable--for health reasons or as a
result of the so-called “digital divide”--to embrace the newest service delivery
approaches. As such, this customer group will continue to require telephonic, face-toface
and, to a limited degree, paper interactions with us.
Money magazine reported that 90% of today’s working adults expect to work
part-time in retirement and 70% of that group said they would do so even if they had
enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. However, the changing
nature of the employment relationship post-retirement may change the focus of this
group’s interaction from one based on mandatory withholding tax to voluntary,
estimated tax payments. Additionally, as this group ages and one spouse dies, the
surviving spouse may be unfamiliar with the process and require additional assistance.
Finally, the trend toward multiple residences among financially secure Boomers creates
filing and compliance issues that do not always lend themselves to electronic filing.
Increased mobility will exacerbate current problems associated with the delivery
of information to our customers. The DTF must send taxpayers informational materials,
tax forms, legal notices and bills. Legal notices carry strict statutory requirements
regarding delivery. Multiple residences among affluent Boomers will compound the
problems caused by today’s working population as they abandon the “single employer for
life” concept which characterized our nation’s working population for so many years.
The Diverse Population: For the DTF, the most challenging characteristic of a
diverse population’s needs is its most fundamental difference: language. With inmigration
accounting for the most significant increase in NYS population in the future
and in light of current statistics on language usage in the home reported earlier in this
report, our Department’s major concern must be to provide existing and planned services
in languages other than English. While interpretive services are currently available to
callers from among bi-lingual employees, and forms and publications can be generated in
Spanish upon request, population trends suggest that increased focus must be given to the
needs of this population. Technology may provide one avenue of response as software is
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