AMS to upgrade Missouri tax collection system

American Management Systems Inc. won a contract from the Missouri Department of Revenue to upgrade the state's tax collection systems and operations, officials of the Fairfax, Va., company announced today.

The state will pay AMS for the $11 million project as the initiative generates new revenue from previously uncollected taxes, according to AMS.

"States across the country are looking for new revenues and ways to maximize the effectiveness of their tax collection operations," said Jonathan Light, vice president of AMS' public-sector group. "Creative public-private partnerships like these allow both parties to share the risks and rewards while delivering new revenues to state coffers and improving customer service."

Under the contract, AMS will implement new software solutions and provide consulting services to assist in collecting overdue taxes. The software solutions are AMS' Computer Assisted Collection System Plus for Government software and its Strata risk management engine.

Department employees will use CACSPlus to create new self-service applications, such as an automated telephone service through which a schedule can be set up to pay past-due taxes. They will use Strata to apply statistical models to support tax collection agents, employing the most effective actions to collect delinquent payments, thus reducing the state's costs, AMS said.

"Upgrading and enhancing our tax collection system will make it more convenient for taxpayers to pay their debt and improve voluntary compliance with state laws and regulations," said Stan Farmer, director of the Tax and Collections Division at the Missouri Department of Revenue. "These are strategic imperatives for the department that we will be able to advance without any upfront investment from the state, thanks to AMS' benefits funding model."

AMS' state tax and revenue customers have realized a combined total of more than $1.2 billion in additional revenue as the result of similar partnerships, and the tax management solutions adopted by four states have yielded ongoing revenue streams that recovered the combined cost of the projects nearly five times over, according to AMS officials.