Kansas Department of Revenue reports $14 billion in annual collections, flags staffing, plate costs and taxpayer advocate pilot

Secretary Burghardt told the Committee on Taxation that the Kansas Department of Revenue processed and accounted for roughly $14,000,000,000 in receipts in the most recent reporting year and outlined operational priorities for 2026.

Burghardt said the bulk of collections flow to the state general fund and the highway fund, together accounting for about 76.9% of the department’s receipts. “We roughly receive and process about $14,000,000,000 a year,” he said, and described the Division of Taxation as the unit that handles the primary tax types the committee oversees.

Why it matters: the report provides the committee with updated revenue trends and operational pressures that could affect budget and statutory choices this legislative session.

Key numbers and trends

Burghardt reported that more than 1,000,000 refunds were issued in the year described by the department (transcript figure: 1,005,935), totaling roughly $917,000,000 in refunded dollars and an average refund of about $866, an increase of roughly 13–14% over the prior year. He also said roughly 93% of individual income tax returns were filed electronically; paper returns have higher error rates (10–15%) compared with electronically filed returns (2–3%).

The department identified 9,767 returns as fraudulent for 2025 and stopped approximately $22,600,000 in improper refunds by work-listing and screening returns that exceeded internal parameters. Burghardt described measures such as bank-account verification and other flags that require human review.

Delinquent debt and revenue recovery

The department reported an inventory of roughly $450,000,000 in delinquent tax debt and expects to collect about $340,000,000 of that amount this fiscal year. Burghardt credited a revenue-recovery team — many working remotely — with rising year-over-year collections and said the unit is tightly monitored for productivity. “We’re for this fiscal year, we’re probably gonna approach $340,000,000 collected,” he said.

Sales, corporate and other tax developments

Burghardt attributed the growth in use-tax receipts largely to the effect of South Dakota v. Wayfair and subsequent marketplace-facilitator legislation, noting use-tax receipts rose from roughly $406,000,000 before Wayfair to about $893,000,000 in 2025; he estimated more than $100,000,000 of that growth comes from marketplace facilitators.

On corporate receipts, Burghardt noted a large bump beginning in 2023 tied to the Salt Parity Act, which shifts certain pass-through tax payments to corporate receipts. He said about $630,000,000 of the department’s corporate-related receipts in 2025 were corporate income tax. Burghardt also explained the state’s financial-institution privilege tax and why it differs from a direct income tax on banks.

Operational pressures: staffing, plates and IT

The secretary said the department currently has about 35 intentionally unfilled positions, a budgeting choice partly tied to unexpectedly high license-plate production and mailing costs. He described a 50% surge in monthly plate production compared with historical averages, an ARPA-funded plate replacement program (transcript figure: $9,800,000), and a per-plate production/mail cost cited as about $10.92. Specialty-plate royalty fees go to sponsoring organizations, not to the department; the blackout plate includes a royalty paid to the state and has been among the few plate options that cover their own costs.

Customer service and modernization

Burghardt highlighted a payment portal that does not require registration and has processed 280,602 transactions totaling about $942,000,000 since launch. He said the department is migrating tax types off an aging mainframe and working on web-file and refund-timeframe improvements.

Property-tax advocate pilot

The department is developing an administrative property-tax advocate to assist taxpayers with Board of Tax Appeals (BOTA) procedures for individual valuation appeals. The advocate would report to the secretary, provide education on appeal deadlines and processes, and the office is exploring legal-clinic partnerships with law schools to expand help and develop expertise among new attorneys.

Questions from lawmakers and next steps

Committee members asked whether interest on refunded amounts is routed to the state general fund; Burghardt said his understanding is that it is. Lawmakers also discussed whether incentives to increase e-filing would require legislation; Burghardt said that concept had been considered but likely needs statutory change for incentives. Members raised concerns about proposed appropriations decisions that would eliminate unfilled FTEs or restrict remote work; the chair said such decisions would be addressed in the appropriations process.

The committee asked the department to return for further briefings on sections of the tax-expenditures report and the department’s tax-expenditure document that is available on the S drive.

Ending

Burghardt concluded by reiterating the department’s intent to leave comprehensive transition documents for incoming leadership and to continue work on IT modernization, debt collection, and the taxpayer-advocate pilot. The committee adjourned to meet again on Tuesday.