Where is the Uncollected Revenue in Your Organization? Where is the Uncollected Revenue in Your Organization?

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Clarissa Suzanna Simmons
5 years ago
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1 Where is the Uncollected Revenue in Your Organization? 1 Where is the Uncollected Revenue in Your Organization? Underpaid Taxes Paying People who Owe You 2

2 City of Phoenix Interesting Facts Population: 1.5 million people Size: 520 Square Miles Airport: 10 th busiest in the US (and America s Friendliest Airport) Average Temperature: 74 degrees Average Days of Sunshine: City of Phoenix Famous People (Mug Shots) 4

3 City of Phoenix Story Annual Budget Cuts Declining Revenue Reduced Staffing Ultimately: Reducing Services 5 City of Phoenix Story Major Services: Police and Fire Water/Sewer Garbage/Recycle Local Transit Airport Parks and Library 6

4 Privilege Tax Revenue 2012 Total General Fund Revenue State-Shared Revenue, 26% Local Privilege Tax, 39% User Fee/Other, 12% Other Resources, 11% Property Tax, 12% 7 Tax Structure Self-Reported Monthly Tax Auditors Identify: Unlicensed Businesses Non-filers Delinquent filers 8

5 Why are we here presenting? 9 Our Successes in Year 1 $2.7 million of new tax revenue collected $1.5 million of new tax assessments (receivables) 10

6 11 Prepare a Clear Definition of Goal Who: City of Phoenix Audit and Tax Departments 12

7 Prepare a Clear Definition of Goal Who: City of Phoenix Audit and Tax Departments What: Identify unlicensed and non-paying Taxpayers 13 Prepare a Clear Definition of Goal Who: City of Phoenix Audit and Tax Departments What: Identify unlicensed and non-paying Taxpayers When: As soon as possible (actually yesterday) 14

8 Prepare a Clear Definition of Goal Who: City of Phoenix Audit and Tax Departments What: Identify unlicensed and non-paying Taxpayers When: As soon as possible (actually yesterday) Why: The City s General Fund is declining, but important services must still be provided 15 Prepare a Clear Definition of Goal Who: City of Phoenix Audit and Tax Departments What: Identify unlicensed and non-paying Taxpayers When: As soon as possible (actually yesterday) Why: The City s General Fund is declining, but important services must still be provided How: Compare licensed taxpayer information with other databases available to identify unlicensed/unpaying taxpayers 16

9 The Pain Phoenix Technology grew up in a decentralized IT environment, which made linking the databases painful due to: -A lack of Citywide Address Standardization -No Unique Customer Number Citywide -Different Naming Conventions (e.g. full name in one field vs. separated) 17 A Q_tip It is not about what YOU know It is about WHO you know And WHAT they know 18

10 Strategy Where to Start What do you know? Who do you know? What do they know? Who can you find that knows more? 19 Stuck Butt Syndrome Get out and meet your fellow workers Don t be afraid to ask for help Ask others who have done this before 20

11 Heroes in our Journey City IT Staff SAP Financial System Staff City Department Staff (e.g. Finance, Development Services) County and State 21 Our Favorite Solution: Business Intelligence What is Business Intelligence? Dictionary.com defines it as: 1. the process of gathering information about a business or industry matter; and/or 2. a broad range of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help make business decisions; 22

Our Definition of Business Intelligence SAP Financial Database

Mantra City KIVA/DSD Database Water Services Commercial Inspection

Successful Met with people from various departments and outside

Department Staff, and other agencies Identified knowledge bases

12 Our Definition of Business Intelligence SAP Financial Database Maricopa County Property Database Water Services CC&B Database Tax Mantra City KIVA/DSD Database Water Services Commercial Inspection Database State of Arizona Taxpayer Database 23 How We Were Successful Met with people from various departments and outside agencies Reviewed tips from employees Collaborated with IT, Department Staff, and other agencies Identified knowledge bases throughout the City Utilized prior audit experience to identify possible data throughout the City 24

13 Tools Used EXCEL 25 EXCEL 26

14 All Tools Lead to Excel Database Download ACL ACCESS Excel Raw Data Tax Audit 27 Tools Used EXCEL 28

15 ACCESS 29 Goal To Find Out: Of the businesses in Phoenix from whom we purchase taxable items... which businesses do not have a Sales Taxpayer ID... because they are not paying us sales tax on their sales. 30

16 Need Directions A B 3 Data sources 595,000 Lines of data List of Vendors without a taxpayer ID 31 Directions: Point A to Point B 3 data sources, lots of data List of vendors with no Phoenix Tax ID 32

17 Three Data Sources Payments to Taxable Vendors Access Data Tables 33 Formatting Compatibility Vendor Master List City of Phoenix Auditor Department 34

18 Data Aforethought 35 Broken Data 36

19 Query: Match by Address 37 A Q_tip 38

20 Another Q_tip 39 Match by Address Using a Join 40

21 Match by Address Details of Join 41 Join Option 1 Only include rows where the joined fields from both tables are equal Payments to Vendors (SAPallgroups) Taxpayer List (TALIS) 42

22 Join Option 3 Include ALL records from TALIS and only those records from SAPallglgroups where the joined fields are equal Payments to Vendors (SAPallgroups) Taxpayer List (TALIS) 43 Join Option 2 Include ALL records from SAPallglgroups and only those records from TALIS where the joined fields are equal. Payments to Vendors (SAPallgroups) Taxpayer List (TALIS) 44

23 Data Anomalies Address 45 Data Anomalies Name 46

24 Create a new Field 47 Create a new Field Details 48

Join on New Fields but Hover the cursor over the

49 Revisiting Join Option 2 Include ALL records

TALIS where the joined fields are equal.

25 Join on New Fields but Hover the cursor over the created field name and the definition will show 49 Revisiting Join Option 2 Include ALL records from SAPallglgroups and only those records from TALIS where the joined fields are equal. Payments to Vendors (SAPallgroups) Taxpayer List (TALIS) 50

26 Focus the Results Only want those that do NOT have a Taxpayer ID number (field name of account number) 51 Access + Human Intervention = Additional Research Time & Patience Massage the Data Review with Others 52

27 A ~463,000 Vendor Payments ~102,000 Taxpayers ~ 28,250 Vendors 2054 lines of data d by Vendor 949 lines of data After initial matching of names & addresses B 540 lines Passed on To Tax Dept. 53 Tools Used EXCEL 54

28 ACL 55 ACL (Audit Command Language) ACL ACCESS ON STEROIDS! Benefits: Data can never be changed/deleted Functions allow you to filter data to meet your needs Scripts can be written for repeat processes (e.g. data upload, queries, joins) 56

29 Opportunities Stumbling Blocks Obtaining Data Obtaining the complete and accurate data file Map out your strategy like an Army General Change your game plan as necessary Be flexible or data will break you! 57 ACL: Commercial Landlords Maricopa County Property Database Tax Database 1.9 Million Records 100,000 Records 58

30 A Q_tip Get to know you data before your start: You don t know what you don t know! Verify # of records vs. source file Review population by data elements Identify Primary Key match within both tables Summarize key fields to understand the population (e.g. how many different Cities are there) Look for anomalies in data fields 59 ACL 4 Easy Steps Upload Property Records Maricopa County Property Database (1.9 Million Records) Filter for Phoenix Maricopa County (400,000 records) Summarize on Address Phoenix Only (350,000 records) Summarize on Count Phoenix Only Owners of 3+ Properties (8,000 records) 60

ACL Data Reality Upload Property Records Maricopa County

9 Million Property Records) Maricopa Database County Property

Maricopa County (400,000 records) Summarize on Address Phoenix

of 3+ Properties (8,000 records) 61 Compare Property Owners to

31 ACL Data Reality Upload Property Records Maricopa County Maricopa Property Database County (1.9 Million Property Records) Maricopa Database County Property Database Maricopa County Property Database Filter for Phoenix Maricopa County (400,000 records) Summarize on Address Phoenix Only (350,000 records) Summarize on Count Phoenix Only Owners of 3+ Properties (8,000 records) 61 Compare Property Owners to Tax Database Phoenix Only > 3+ Properties Tax Database 50% of Landlords Were Not in Tax Database 62

32 CODE1 63 CODE1 Tax Mantra City of Phoenix 17 S. 2 nd Street, Phoenix, AZ County Assessor Download 17 S. Second St. Phoenix, Arizona

33 CODE1 Tax Mantra Tax ID Name Address Phone Status Type Balance Due Smith Assoc 432 E. Elm #200 Phx, Az Quiktrip 18 South 1 st Ave Pheonix, AZ NightSchool 6652 N. First Street Phoenix, Az Cur Bus $40, Del Bus $15, Cur NPO $799 ACL Script TEXT FILE KEY / NAME / ADDRESS / CITY / S2--/ ZIP5-----/ Smith Assoc 432 E. Elm #200 Phx AZ Quiktrip 18 South 1 st Ave Pheonix AZ NightSchool 6652 N. First Street Phoenix AZ CODE1 TEXT FILE KEY / NAME / ADDRESS / CITY / S2--/ ZIP5-----/ Smith Assoc 432 E ELM STE 200 PHOENIX AZ Quiktrip 18 S 1ST AVE PHOENIX AZ NightSchool 6652 N 1ST ST PHOENIX AZ ACL Script Tax Mantra Tax ID Name Address STANDARD ADDRESS Phone Status Type Balance Due Smith Assoc 432 E. Elm #200 Phx, Az Quiktrip 18 South 1 st Ave Pheonix, AZ NightSchool 6652 N. First Street Phoenix, Az E ELM STE 200 PHOENIX AZ S 1ST AVE PHOENIX AZ N 1ST ST PHOENIX AZ Cur Bus $40, Del Bus $15, Cur NPO $799 66

SAP vs Tax Mantra - Daily SAP TAX WATER Pending Check Run A/R Balance

Smith 10 E 84TH ST $500 11220 Bill Smith 10 E 84TH ST $400 543 Ables Co

357 W 3RD AVE $1,600 11006 Phil Lawes 357 W 3RD AVE $300 All matches

67 The Reward Continued improvement in Tax Collection processes

34 SAP vs Tax Mantra - Daily SAP TAX WATER Pending Check Run A/R Balance (Delinquent) Ck# Pay To Addr Amt Acct Name Addr Bal Due 120 Mr. Smith 10 E 84TH ST $ Bill Smith 10 E 84TH ST $ Ables Co 2512 S OAK RD $11, Sue Able 2512 S OAK RD $61, Laws LLC 357 W 3RD AVE $1, Phil Lawes 357 W 3RD AVE $300 All matches must be verified before withholding check!! Economic Impact so far? 67 The Reward Continued improvement in Tax Collection processes Automated activities built into the daily routine Citywide awareness of the benefits of data-sharing 68

35 The Future: DataMart The City has been working on a Citywide project to fund a business intelligence highway: DataMart- an intelligent data highway where data can be accessed and shared by authorized users Citywide To allow City Departments to access other department information: Water can work with Development Services to identify unread meters Tax Audit can access Neighborhood Services information to identify rental property owners 69 Final Advice 1. Be brave and visit everyone you know (and don t know) 2. Ask yourself one question at the end of your meetings: How will this information meet my needs? 3. Obtain address software to ease the joining of files 4. Don t have stuck butt syndrome go see people 5. Watch out for false positives, confirm your data mining results and methodology with relevant staff 70

36 Where is the Uncollected Revenue in Your Organization? 71

Paying Your Income Taxes

Paying Your Income Taxes Advanced Level Taxes they re a part of everyday life. Perhaps you ve overheard a significant adult in your life talk about taxes, sometimes accompanied by a groan. For many people,