Department of Revenue developed an agency-wide Quality Council. The council represents staff and managers from every level of the organization. Through the Executive management team and the Quality Council, the agency is dedicated itself to the incorporation of continuous quality improvement throughout the organization. A team was assembled to look at ways to educate, inform and increase voluntary compliance to state taxing laws, while building and strengthening relationships with the business community. The State of Washington Department of Revenue developed a new Tax Consultation Service, the first state to offer this type of service.
Businesses simply contact the department and request an onsite visit.
Instead of the traditional audit, The Department of Revenue looks at a business's operations and accounting systems. The business receives reporting instructions and recommendations for gathering information for filing tax returns. Without having to face an audit, businesses can learn about what tax laws affect them and how to avoid reporting errors. The Department of Revenue analyzed and used data from our performance measure system, which highlighted the error problems in local tax coding. While the Research Division originally acquired and developed the GIS for research purposes, the team analyzed the trends that were affecting coding processes and began generating potential solutions.