State Agencies Launch

Tax-Related Initiatives

HARTFORD (AP) — The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles will begin alerting towns and cities of vehicle owners who are suspected of improperly registering vehicles out of state to avoid property taxes.

The agency decided to copy notices received by alleged violators to local tax assessors after a legislative audit found the vehicles agency did not follow up on complaints.

The Connecticut General Assembly’s auditors of public accounts found that hundreds of reports from residents, tax assessors, and police departments were not investigated by the agency’s compliance unit.

Spokesman William Seymour says the failure was due to staffing limits, more pressing work, and the amount of time required to investigate reports of improper registration.

In other tax-related news, the Connecticut’s Department of Revenue Services says it will no longer mail tax booklets to individual taxpayers.

The agency said in a report that more and more people are filing their state tax returns electronically, while the DRS is looking to reduce mailing and printing costs.

State tax officials says the federal Internal Revenue Service and several other states have recently made similar decisions to stop sending out tax booklets, which will be made available at libraries, post offices, and town halls next month.

Forms can also be downloaded from the DRS website at www.ct.gov/DRS.

During the last tax filing season, 1.6 million personal income tax returns were filed with DRS. Of those, DRS estimates about 125,000 returns or eight percent, were attributed to the mailed tax booklets.