THE Department of Finance recently received $1,171,160 in federal funds so it can create a revenue management information tax system.
Secretary of Finance David DLG Atalig on Friday said the funding is part of the $3.4 million awarded to the CNMI by the U.S. Department of the Interior-Office of Insular Affairs Technical Assistance Program.
He said the funding will allow the Division of Revenue and Taxation to finally update its manual data entry to automated data entry.
“This will be a [new] system that will allow us to internally manage our processes as well as automate the tax refund system. We’re also looking at taxpayers and businesses submitting their tax refunds online, getting that data online, automating the process so that there’s no more manual data entry,” Atalig said.
He noted that human error has historically been an issue during the tax process, adding that this is especially the case with submitted tax returns that are handwritten.
As for the data enterers in the department, he said there have also been errors from their end.
“We want to reduce those human errors, not just on the taxpayer’s side, but also on our data entry side. We’re all humans, we make human errors, and sometimes we enter names incorrectly… those are the issues we want to resolve,” Atalig said.
The new automated tax system, he reiterated, will allow taxpayers, businesses, and corporations to submit online payments, as well as upload tax documents.
“We’re trying to streamline [the process]. We will [also] get there with revenue and taxation, for the customs excise taxes [and] all [the other] taxes the Commonwealth collects,” Atalig said.
He added that although the grant allows for a maximum of two years for the rollout, he has set a personal goal of 18 months.
The main challenge, he said, will be data conversion, or ensuring that all of the department’s historical or legacy data are inputted into the new system.
“That will be the biggest challenge, but that’s something that we’ve been looking at for the last year and a half when we were looking at a new system… I anticipate that I will get the first year going. We need to get some developers and programmers on board,” he said.
