City of Ansorua Tax Office Policies and Procedures Recommendations as of: September 24,2072

Motor Vehicle Taxes

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No one receives a motor vehicle clearance unless all tax bills and penalties for vehicles in their name and owned jointly are paid in full. NO EXCEPTiONS! Motor vehicle releases should be kept under lock and key after hours and when no one is in the office.
Reporting "Put-ons" to the Department of Motor Vehicles should be done after every collection period is complete. (August for regular motor vehicle bills and February for supplemental motor vehicle bills) The motor vehicle file should be "purged" each time "Put-ons" are reported. The only record D.M.V. has of a "Put-on" for Ansonia is October 22,2010.

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Motor vehicle "Take-offs" should be reported at the beginning of every month. This will reduce traffic in the Tax Office. The last "Take-off'was done on September 15,2011. Motor vehicle delinquent notices should be sent quarterly. Currently, no delinquent notices are sent for motor vehicles and the Tax Office has been relying solely on D.M.V. to flag and hold registrations for delinquent
accounts.

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Consideration should be given to using a Collection Agency for all motor vehicle accounts delinquent for over one year. The Tax Office has insufficient staff and resources to skip trace thousands of taxpayers who may no longer live in Ansonia. (The part-time clerk took two years to finish skip tracing 1995 - 1998 motor vehicle grand iists.) The City of Ansonia should corlmence using the online Department of Motor Vehicles infonnation system. The cost is approximately $400 per year. This system allows access to both registration and license information'and is invaluable as a resource for locating registrants, since it contains up-to-date address information. Consider estabiishing a policy of filing liens against real estate for delinquent motor vehicle taxes due over a certain threshold amount. Consider wage gamishments for deiinquent taxpayers where place of work can be determined.

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ersonal Property Taxes

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In general, the Tax Office must take personal property taxes.

more aggressive posture to collecting

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Currentiy two delinquent notices are sent each year. After two plus years of delinquency, accounts are turned over to the state Marshall. The first delinquent notice should be sent as soon as processing is complete for each collection period. (September) For accounts still unpaid, a demand should be sent in October that includes jeopardy collection of the July, January and following year's taxes if the account is still in business on October 1. If unpaid, the account should be tumed over to the state Marshali in November.
Consideration should be given to accelerating the installment schedule for collection of personal property taxes. (Either once per year in July, or once per year for all accounts less than
Copies of all checks received from personal property accounts should be kept on file for banking information purposes.

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General
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The policy of moving accounts to suspense should be reviewed and updated. No accounts have been added to suspense since the 2001 Grand List. Per state statute, the Tax Collector is obligated to recommend accounts for suspense on an annual basis.

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Upon the appointment of a new Tax Collector, the Tax Office should have direct access to lockbox files transmitted by Webster Bank. Currently the IT Director downloads the files and then transmits them to the Tax Office. Direct access would allow for faster updating of taxpayer accounts.

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A police escort should be used for every deposit taken to Webster Bank. Deposits should be made at least twice per week during non-collection periods and daily during collection periods (July & January).
The Tax Office should maintain lists of delinquent notices sent. Currently notices are sent without any listings being printed. To determine if and when a notice was sent, accounts have to be checked individually.

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Lists of both "Put-ons" and "Take-offs" should be kept on file to respond to taxpayer inquiries/concems about when accounts were reported or cleared.

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Ail payrnents for "Misceilaneous Fees" should be recorded and deposited to the Tax Collector's Account. (Fees for printouts where no receipt is requested are kept and used to pay off miscellaneous small balances.)