Coming January 2016 Changes in Processing Income Tax Returns will lead to increased revenue for Detroit

by Richard C. Clement

Beginning January 1, 2016, an agreement between the City of Detroit and the Michigan Department of the Treasury will allow city residents to e-file their City of Detroit tax return as a part of their State Tax return. The combined e-filing of the State and City return will benefit City Taxpayers by,

1.       Improving the accuracy of the return
2.       Providing Faster Refunds
3.       Increasing taxpayer options as more software developers support a city return
4.       Allowing access to Treasury’s online services to confirm receipt of the return and the date the refund is issued.

This change will allow you or, your representative to file for a return online and get a refund much faster than you do now.  The City will be able to monitor funds and collect taxes from people who do not file local returns that work in the city. If a paper return is sent to the City, they will be manually entered into the Treasury Computer also.  All paper returns files will be scanned into an image and, the paper copy destroyed. If you owe the State of Michigan and due a refund from the City, by law your City refund cannot be seized.

The Information Technology function of the City Detroit will be re-distributed from data entry to visual monitoring of reports and daily cash flow in real time.  The City of Detroit will have a Tax fund set aside to cover the refunds being issues that will be funded by daily collections of City Taxes throughout the year.  With software upgrades, taxpayers statewide will see a reduction in the number of forms filed to get a local refund as software modules are developed for additional cities.