Print
Solutions May 2005
E-FILES
Tax Returns Made Less
Taxing
InSource
Solutions Group Inc. and Aztek
Technology help municipalities
collect income taxes with an online
application.
BY
KARA GEBHART UHL
It’s
1:45 p.m. on Friday, April 15.
Frantic people search for their
misplaced W2 forms. Procrastinators
hunch over desks with their 1040
forms and a calculator. Postal
workers try to maintain a positive
attitude while surveying the lines
that flow out the post office
doors and into the streets. But
Faye Gibson, director of taxation
for the city of Dublin, Ohio,
is less frazzled than on previous
tax days.
Thanks
to an online tax tool called InConnect,
Gibson expects few problems in
the upcoming months. “We
anticipate the forms completed
using the online tax tool will
be correct, which will decrease
our workload since the calculations
are performed by the software
instead of the individual,”
she says.
In
several states, including Michigan,
Ohio and Pennsylvania, local municipalities
collect income tax. Determining
the tax can be confusing because
each city has its own tax rate.
Some cities offer full or partial
tax credits to residents who also
pay taxes to the city where they
work. Residents who haven’t
lived in a city for one full year
must base their tax on partial
residency. In addition to these
calculations, some residents must
estimate their income tax for
the upcoming year in order to
make quarterly payments.
Traditionally,
residents calculate their local
tax returns and fill out paper
forms. Cities send them estimated
tax form mailings quarterly. Taxpayers’
errors result in incorrect forms.
InConnect quickly and easily calculates
a resident’s taxes and credits
based on personal information,
city’s laws and ordinances,
and length of residency. The online
application also creates estimated
payment vouchers for the upcoming
year, complete with due dates.
Combining
Print and Technology
InConnect
is the result of a partnership
between Westerville, Ohio-based
InSource Solutions Group Inc.,
a company whose principals have
15 years of experience in printing,
marketing and communications,
and Cleveland-based Aztek Technology,
a company that specializes in
web and software development.
InSource and Aztek formed the
company InConnect Solutions to
market the tax tool, which they
promote under the name City Solutions.
Prior to forming InSource, President
Stephen Giesler sold traditional
print tax forms and mailing services
to municipalities. He often heard
city tax administrators express
their wishes for an online tax
tool that “knew” the
local tax laws and ordinances,
and could actually calculate taxes
for the taxpayer—not just
a form that taxpayers could fill
in online.
In
2004, he and Executive Vice President
Teri Giesler formed InSource with
the intent to wed traditional
printing methods to existing technology.
Tackling an online tax application
was their first project. With
only an idea and a newly formed
company, the Gieslers talked with
tax administrators in Ohio cities
about their online tax tool concept.
The cities supported the idea.
Teri, who previously had been
a print distributor and web site
developer for benefit enrollments,
and for years had been using tax
preparation software TurboTax,
wrote an outline that detailed
what she wanted the online application
to do. Aztek then programmed the
software. To test the application,
the companies created numerous
scenarios to work out bugs. The
Gieslers showed a prototype to
tax administrators in Newark,
Ohio and Dublin, and both cities
jumped on board.
InConnect
seeks distributors in Michigan
and Pennsylvania to license and
sell the tax tool.
How
InConnect Works
Municipalities
using InConnect are required to
send each taxpayer their log-in
information. While Newark sent
the tax form with this information,
Dublin simply sent a post card
to each taxpayer. To access the
application, taxpayers go to a
web site specified in the mailing
and then create an account using
their log-in information and answering
a series of security questions.
If the taxpayer has paid taxes
before, much of the information—name,
address, social security number,
carryover from last year, previous
quarterly payments—already
will have been imported into the
system.
Once
they’re through the welcome
and personal information pages,
taxpayers agree to the program’s
terms and conditions, and identify
the tax forms they use, such as
W2, Schedule C, Schedule F and
Schedule E. The program uses this
information to collect the appropriate
data. For example, if the taxpayer
doesn’t have farm income
or loss to state, the program
won’t ask for Schedule F
data.
Next,
taxpayers enter their W2 information.
The screen is customized for each
city based on the W2 boxes they
use to calculate income. Taxpayers
can input as many W2s as needed.
The taxpayers complete the necessary
worksheets to finalize their returns.
For now, taxpayers must print
and mail the completed forms to
the city tax administrator, but
InSource hopes to offer electronic
filing in the future.
If
they have problems using the application,
taxpayers simply email their tax
administrators, who can instantly
look up accounts to address the
problem. Should a city have problems
using the application, InSource
and Aztek provide technical support.
InSource and Aztek also update
InConnect for each city once a
year to comply with new city ordinances
and laws.
So
far the application has worked
beautifully, Teri says. “This
is not an off-the-shelf program,”
she says. “It’s something
that we truly customize to fit
the needs of the city, and we’re
just thrilled about it.”
Two additional cities have committed
verbally to using the application
for the 2006 tax year. Teri says
she hopes to add at least 10 more.
InSource
and Aztek are in the final testing
stages of a product that will
deliver personal tax forms, such
as W2s and 1098s to taxpayers
online, which will contribute
to the Giesler’s goal of
serving clients by combining traditional
printing and existing technology.
“The
tax preparation tool we used this
year is very user friendly,”
Gibson says. “We have received
numerous compliments on the system
from our users.” When taxpayers
say something nice to tax administrators—well,
you know you’ve done something
right.
Kara Gebhart Uhl is a freelance writer in
Cincinnati. Email us your comments at editors@printsolutionsmag.com.
THE FILE ON INSOURCE
SOLUTIONS GROUP INC.
Company:
InSource Solutions Group Inc.
Launched:
2004
Location:
Westerville, Ohio
Employees:
2
Principals:
Stephen Giesler, president; Teri
Giesler, executive vice president
Business
in Brief: InSource Solutions Group
Inc. weds traditional printing
methods and existing technology
to create new services to better
accomplish clients’ needs.
