Reforming the Business Inspection Process

About the Program

Category: Financial Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

Within the County of Henrico, the Business Inspection staff is responsible for ensuring the corporate community adheres to both the license and personal property tax regulations. In order to accomplish this task, an extensive field program has evolved to monitor the commercial activities occurring throughout a 245 square mile area. The inspectors canvass their assigned territories to identify new businesses, issue notices, and summons to precipitate compliance with the tax laws. Over the past few years, this process has been reformed to improve operational efficiency, offer better customer service, and generate sorely needed revenue. Several of the initiatives which have been undertaken include: defining each inspector’s territory based on demographic data by zip code; segregating the 25,000 business accounts so that those which do not generate a tax liability are handled by the office support staff; utilization of cell phones in the field to contact businesses in advance to verify they are available to discuss tax issues; and utilization of wireless laptops to access information relevant to filing and payment matters in order to resolve issues while on site. This resulted in a 30% increase in field revenue by inspectors to $3 million.