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Department of Taxes tells committee it prioritizes service, technology and municipal data for property-tax work
Summary
Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Samaroff told the Study Committee on Government Operations on Feb. 27 that the Vermont Department of Taxes emphasizes service and staff development, relies on an integrated tax system (VITAACS), and is coordinating with municipalities on grand-list data and a report about second-home classification.
The Study Committee on Government Operations heard an overview of the Vermont Department of Taxes on Feb. 27, with Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Samaroff describing the agency’s mission, organization, technology platform and municipal responsibilities.
Rebecca Samaroff, deputy commissioner, told the committee: "For the record, Rebecca Samaroff, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Taxes," and summarized the department’s mission: "Our mission is to serve Vermonters," she said, adding that the agency balances collecting revenue with administering benefit programs and helping taxpayers comply.
Samaroff said the department has 167 employees organized in seven divisions, administers about 34 tax types and three benefit programs (current use, the property tax credit and the renter credit), and reported fiscal-year 2024 revenue of about $2.75 billion. She described the department’s integrated tax system, VITAACS, as central to operations: it handles registration, filing, billing and compliance and was fully implemented in 2017.
Why it matters: Samaroff framed those elements as the technical and organizational foundation for the department’s stated goals — serving taxpayers, reducing the tax gap and promoting a healthy organizational culture — and told legislators that strong service and tools increase voluntary compliance.
The presentation included performance statistics the department uses to measure service. Samaroff said the department processes a large volume of returns (described in the meeting as "about, 1,100,000, in tax return themselves"), answered roughly 6,000 calls in 2024 with an average wait time of 1 minute 23 seconds, and met refund goals: 95% of refunds issued by June 1 and 82% within 30 days for a recent filing season. She also noted a commonly cited efficiency metric: "Costs about 1¢ to collect a dollar in revenue," referring to the department’s operating-cost-to-revenue ratio.
Samaroff discussed the compliance division’s role in narrowing the tax gap and said compliance activity accounted for around 2% of revenue collections in the slide cited (which she described as approximately $55 million in 2022). She said the department emphasizes education and outreach — including a tax symposium for preparers — to increase voluntary compliance before enforcement is necessary.
On property tax administration, Samaroff reminded the committee that property taxes are collected at the municipal level and that the department’s Division of Property Evaluation and Review manages the current-use program and statewide interactions with municipal grand lists. In response to a senator’s question about taxing second homes at a higher rate, she said the department has produced a multi-part report on municipal grand-list data and standardization and that a report addressing classification questions (including second homes) was due Dec. 15 and is under review in the House Ways and Means committee. She offered to circulate the report to the committee.
Samaroff also recounted internal workforce and culture work: the department has developed mission-based core values since 2021 (service, integrity, growth and community), and she highlighted employee-engagement results she described as strong (for example, the presentation cited survey results including 98% of employees saying their work links to departmental goals and 86% saying they enjoy daily work).
Committee members asked about municipal capacity to implement finer-grained property classifications, and Samaroff said that while the department can centralize and standardize data, the actual assessment and collection work is executed by more than 250 municipalities. She said the department has recommended ways to centralize standardized data without removing municipal control of grand lists.
The department offered to return to the committee to discuss municipal implementation details or legislative language; Samaroff specifically offered to come back with fiscal staff for any bills the committee considers.
Samaroff closed by emphasizing the department’s collaborative relationship with the legislature and the operational limits that sometimes require legislative support for funding or statutory change.
Ending: Committee members thanked Samaroff and moved to the next agenda item, a walkthrough of a survivor-benefit bill.
