An organization that reviews technical innovation across the state to find the best of the best each year has selected the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance for one of its 2013 Best of New York Awards.

e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government, called out the Tax Department’s Sales Tax Web File for its “Best Application Serving an Agency’s Business Needs” category.

Sales Tax Web File is the Department’s one-stop shop that 560,000 businesses of all sizes throughout the state use to file and remit the sales taxes they collect from customers.  The system was first implemented in September, 2012 using state-of-the-art web technology to provide a seamless online experience for sales tax filers.

“We thank the Center for their recognition of our system, which was primarily designed to improve service to the business community,” said Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Thomas H. Mattox.  "Sales Tax Web builds on our ever-expanding platform of online services and supports compliance by enabling faster and more efficient processing – a benefit to taxpayers, the state and local governments.”

The Center presented Commissioner Mattox with the award at its Government Technology Conference East in Albany on September 20.

The organization described Sales Tax Web File as “robust,” and said it “greatly simplified” the taxpayer’s task by guiding them through the process with a “user-friendly format.” 

Since going online, the new sales tax system has cut the number of errors on submitted returns in half.  At the same time, New York taxpayers save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year as a result of more efficient electronic processing.

Businesses collect nearly $25 billion in sales taxes from their customers each year.  The taxes collected are transmitted to the State Tax Department, which in turn distributes more than $13 billion to local governments. The remaining funds are used for state programs.  

For more information
-  Visit the Department’s Web site at www.tax.ny.gov
-  Follow the Tax Department on Twitter and find sales tax-related demos on YouTube