House Bill 91 would allow the Department of Revenue to send correspondence—letters, notices and other communications—electronically when a taxpayer elects to receive communications on a form provided by the department.

Representative Mark Thane presented the bill at the department’s request, noting that the Department of Revenue currently sends hundreds of thousands of mailed items annually and that electronic communication options can speed service and reduce costs. "We spend over $1,000,000 a year to send out 700,000 pieces of mail every year," Krista Gutowski, information management bureau chief for the Department of Revenue, told the committee.

Gutowski said electronic communications could include email, secure links, text messaging and enhanced system-to-system messages and would be an opt-in choice for taxpayers, not a requirement. She noted the department’s integrated tax system already supports opt-in and the department expects to absorb implementation costs in existing IT budgets. Committee members asked about fraud and authentication; Gutowski said the department will tailor security of the delivery mechanism to the sensitivity of the content and could require secure login for matters involving taxpayer-specific determinations.

No opponents testified. The department urged the committee to pass the bill to modernize communications, improve taxpayer service and reduce paper waste.