Below is a link to an interesting article from the City of Lakewood regarding their switch from the Regional Income Tax Agency (RITA) to in-house tax collection using our Municipal Income Tax Solutions (MITS) software.
Some particular points of interest from the article:
- "It is important to note the ratio of income tax related expenditures to actual income tax collections was at a high of 4.77% in 2003 (with RITA) to a low of 3.2% in 2007 (In house). This ratio has been at or below 3.5% since leaving RITA, where the ratio was historically above 4%."
- "City of Lakewood In House Collections Total Costs in 2007: $572,192 - a savings of nearly $85,000"
- "The City of Lakewood's Income Tax software contains a database of the entire city that identifies each address and classifying it as an owner-occupied or rental property in order to track residents, businesses and property owners. It also tracks if a return was filed from that address, which effectively identifies non-filers that the Income Tax Division aggressively pursues."
- "It was the City of Lakewood's experience that RITA did not fully utilize its taxpayer information."
- "Although RITA stated that any audit functions were included in the fees charged, it has since been discovered that many tax issues were missed by RITA at a cost to the City of Lakewood."
http://onelakewood.com/blog/2009/06/regional-vs-local-income-tax-collection.html
