Calls to Tax Department
to get faster response
For a one-week period earlier this year, 90 percent of the calls to the state Tax Department were unanswered, according to Gov. Linda Lingle.
Calling that response rate "unacceptable," Lingle promised that the department would drastically improve.
In a speech to the annual meeting of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Lingle said the department has gotten its orders.
"We know we need to get better," Lingle said. "We only picked up one out of every 10 calls; that is unacceptable, and we won't allow it to continue into the next tax season."
Kurt Kawafuchi, state tax director, said the heavy number of calls was generated by an unusually high number of tax notices sent this year. The notices were caused by a new tax computer system that is "still under adjustment."
Lingle said the Tax Department has taken 22 workers from other tax divisions and formed a new group to handle calls.
"This new division will not add any new people, but now you will not be passed from division to division," Lingle said.
She estimated that 80 percent of the Tax Department telephone inquiries will be handled on the first call.
The Tax Department also plans an automated phone system so that requests for routine information will be handled without taking up staff time.
Next year, Kawafuchi said the Tax Department also plans to add a service so taxpayers can check on the status of their refund checks.
Earlier this year, the Tax Department was forced to delay the printing and mailing of general excise tax return forms booklets for some Hawaii taxpayers who file their returns on a semiannual basis. The delay was caused when the initial computer run to generate the information for the vendor that prints and mails the booklets was interrupted, according to the department.