Each tax return file contains tax forms and related documents, such as correspondence. More than one employee performs tasks on each return. In the past, delays occurred while one employee waited for another to finish a specific task. The new system allows multiple employees to view images of personal income tax files, along with Income Tax data, from their desktop or download them onto laptop computers. Multiple employees view files at the same time.
Employees can highlight areas of a document as well as attach post-it notes to a file.
Archived files, which took a week or more to access in the past, are now available on the next day following the request. The Department's solution, which agency staff developed and continue to maintain, combines new imaging software with a legacy system and relies on a combination of tape and optical disc storage. The new software is user friendly and can handle many types of documents. In the near future, the Department plans to expand the system to include Withholding Taxes, Corporation Taxes and Executive Correspondence. In the 300,000 active member folders on site, there are nine million documents consisting of 300 document types.