State Tax Audit Software Request for Information

Transcription

1 State Tax Audit Software Request for Information State of Florida Department of Revenue - GTA Request for Information FDOR Tax Audit Program RFI # 17/ Introduction The Florida Department of Revenue (the Department or FDOR ), hereby issues this Request for Information ( RFI ) seeking information from interested parties who can provide state tax audit software to be used while performing audits of the taxes administered by the State of Florida, Department of Revenue. The Department is in the process of replacing the legacy audit software to upgrade the technical platform to more current technologies. The current audit software interfaces with SAP ECC where the audit case inventories and enterprise taxpayer data are maintained. The goal of this RFI is to provide the Department with the latest information on state tax audit software available. Any product offering must have the capability of communicating with SAP and provide custom configuration options where needed in order to comply with the requirements under Florida Statutes and Florida Administrative Code. 2. Purpose of an RFI 2.1. Rule 60A-1.042, Florida Administrative Code, provides that an agency may request information by issuing a written RFI. Agencies are authorized to use an RFI in circumstances including, but not limited to, determining whether to competitively procure a commodity or contractual services, determining what solicitation process to use for a particular need, or researching general, special, and/or technical specifications for a solicitation. A vendor s response to a RFI is not an offer and the agency may not use the vendor s submission to justify a contract with that vendor without otherwise complying with Chapter 287, Florida Statutes (F.S.) and Rule 60A-1.042, F.A.C. Vendors submitting a response to an agency s RFI are not prohibited from responding to any related subsequent solicitation Any future purchase of the services will be conducted in accordance with Chapter 287, F.S The Department may use responses to this RFI to prepare one or more competitive solicitations.

2 2.4. The Department may use this RFI as the basis for subsequent vendor meetings and product demonstrations for those firms that meet the requirements specified in Section 3 of this document If demonstrations are requested, then they will be scheduled directly with only those vendors who respond to all questions in section 4 of this document If the Department receives responses from multiple vendors on the same product, the Department will contact the manufacturer of the product and ask them to present the demonstration. 3. Requirements The Department uses audit software while performing audits of Sales and Use Tax, Communications Services Tax, Reemployment (Unemployment Compensation) Tax, Solid Waste Tax and Motor Fuels Tax. Taxpayer electronic data is imported into the audit application, queried and filtered, and used to conduct detailed audit examinations, or sampled and projected using one of the Departments approved methods. Included in the approved methods are random sampling and stratified statistical analysis. Audit cases and the audit case inventories are maintained in SAP ECC. SAP audit case data and tax return filing data is downloaded into the audit software used to perform the audit. When the audit is complete, the audit results including: workpapers, audit assessment, and assessment distribution are uploaded to SAP for review and processing. Audit workpapers are generated from the audit software and can be provided to the taxpayer in electronic or hard-copy format. Transactional data in the audit software can be exported and imported and shared between auditors for team audits. Tax calculations performed during the audit are historical in nature requiring historical tax rates to be maintained. Tax rates and associated tax calculations are sitused by Florida county or Florida jurisdiction. Florida counties and jurisdictions can levy additional discretionary and local option taxes which are combined with the state tax rate to perform a single aggregate tax calculation. When total tax is calculated, the total tax is stored along with a breakout of the state tax portion and any discretionary or local option tax portion. These breakouts are used in SAP for subsequent audit payment settlement and distribution of audit payments. The audit application must have the following capabilities: 3.1 General requirements Provide the ability to integrate/interface with SAP ECC for audit case data transfer and exchange Provide the ability to perform historical tax calculations based on Florida county or jurisdictional situsing for tax rates Provide the ability to calculate tax based on a composite tax rate consisting of a state tax and local tax portion Provide the ability to separately state the tax rate components of a composite tax rate calculation for distribution and reporting purposes Provide the ability to calculate penalty on a monthly basis using a stated penalty rate

3 Provide the ability to calculate interest on a monthly and daily basis using a stated interest rate Provide the ability to allocate penalty and interest to the various tax components for distribution and reporting purposes Allow for the import of taxpayer electronic records for analysis Allow for manual entry of taxpayer records for analysis Allow for the export of audit data files Provide the ability to conduct detailed audit examination on taxpayer records Provide the ability to perform a random sample on taxpayer records Provide the ability to conduct a judgmental or non-statistical sample on taxpayer records Provide the ability to perform statistical analysis on taxpayer records with a calculated precision Provide the ability to project sample results both statistical and non-statistical through the audit period Provide the ability to generate workpapers in both electronic and hardcopy formats 3.2 Security System must allow access to only authorized users System must allow access to create/change/display data based on user authorization System must provide the ability for FDOR to configure security authorizations and user roles System must be compatible with Microsoft s Active Directory Domain Services System must provide data and application security at the individual PC level if the proposed solution uses an installed client application with data residing on the user s PC. 4. Response Content Please answer each of the following. Please use the corresponding number, e.g. 4.1, 4.2 and then your response. 4.1 Please provide your recommendation pertaining to the above-listed requirements. Do NOT include pricing in your response. 4.2 Please provide your offerings on implementation, customization, migration and training for the recommendation. 4.3 Please provide your pricing methodology for your recommendation (i.e. your basis for charging), but do NOT include actual pricing in your response. 4.4 Are you currently on any of the following contracts or any other governmental contract that permits cooperative purchasing? (State of Florida State Term Contract with the Florida Department of Management Services, U.S. Communities Contract, GSA Schedule 70 Contract with a cooperative agreement, etc.). If so, please provide the applicable contract number. 4.5 Response Matrix Place an X in one column per requirement

4 3.1 General Requirements Standard Functionality Provide the ability to integrate/interface with SAP ECC Provide the ability to perform historical tax calculations based on Florida County or Jurisdictional situsing configuration custom code Cannot Meet Provide the ability to calculate tax based on a composite tax rate consisting of a State tax and Local tax portion Provide the ability to separately state the tax rate components of a composite tax rate calculation for distribution and reporting purposes Provide the ability to calculate penalty on a monthly basis using a stated penalty rate Provide the ability to calculate interest on a monthly and daily basis using a stated interest rate Allow for the import of taxpayer electronic records for analysis Allow for manual entry of taxpayer records for analysis Allow for the export of audit data files Provide the ability to conduct detailed audit examination on taxpayer records Provide the ability to perform a random sample on taxpayer records Provide the ability to conduct a judgmental or non-statistical sample on taxpayer records Provide the ability to perform statistical analysis on taxpayer records with a calculated precision Provide the ability to project sample results both statistical and

5 non-statistical through the audit period Provide the ability to generate workpapers in both electronic and hardcopy formats 3.2 Security Requirements Standard Functionality System must allow access to only authorized users System must allow access to create/change/display data based on user authorization configuration custom code Cannot Meet System must provide the ability for FDOR to configure security authorizations and user roles System must be compatible with Microsoft s Active Directory Domain Services Technology Web / Application Data Base Other Platform Additional Comments: 5. Written Questions & Responses Written questions concerning this RFI shall be submitted via to the Purchasing Agent, Michael Weyant, Michael.Weyant@floridarevenue.com, no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Wednesday, November 15, It is anticipated that FDOR will provide via the Vendor Bid System, written responses to all timely submitted written questions, no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Wednesday, November 22, 2017.

6 6. Response Submissions All responses are due by December 4, 2017 at 5pm EST. Send responses to: Michael Weyant Please the response to: Label your response: RFI # 17/18-22 State Tax Audit Software 7. Additional Information 7.1. This is a Request for Information (RFI) and should not be construed as intent, commitment or promise to acquire or purchase the proposed services presented by vendors The Florida Department of Revenue will not be obligated to any vendor as a result of this RFI. The Department is not obligated for any cost incurred by vendors in the preparation of their response to this RFI. The Department will not pay for any information herein requested nor be liable for any costs incurred by the vendor This RFI is being submitted strictly for the purpose of gaining knowledge on services available on the market for the provision of these services, related services, and options available From the information collected through this RFI, the Department will review all information and options related to the services, related services, and desirable options At a later time, it is anticipated that the Department will release our requirement through the formal bidding process or through a certified alternate contract source All information obtained shall become the property of the Department upon receipt and will not be returned. The Department cannot guarantee that it will not be compelled to disclose all or part of any public record under the Florida Sunshine Law In the RFI, the Department has addressed a series of questions to vendors, and request that vendors reply to the Department in the same sequence and format The Department requests that all vendors submit responses that are short, clear, concise and complete Submitting a response to this RFI does not exclude any vendor from submitting a response to a solicitation as a result of the information collected from this RFI.