Delaware agencies work together to update corporate tax system

A new app that allows corporations to pay taxes and fees to state government will increase efficiency between Delawares private and public sectors, the states chief information officer James Collins said.

The state had previously used a legacy platform that ran off the mainframe for these transactions. Buttoward the end of 2015, it launched anew modern application that runs independently. Collins said it was critical for the state to make this update.

Delaware is the corporate capital of the world, Collins told StateScoop in a video interview at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers midyear conference in Baltimore last month. We worked with [the Division of Corporations] to modernize off of the mainframe into a modern application to manage their corporation business, which is a third of the states revenue and involves just about every major corporation in the U.S. and around the world.

Had the migration not gone poorly, it might have been national news, he said.

Fortunately, you probably didnt hear about it, because our goal was for it to be a non-event, Collins said. It wouldve been like a CNN, MSNBC, Fox, CNBC news event because when those companies cant do those transactions, it impacts the global economy.

The work on the system is not complete, he said.Though,the Division of Corporations is now processing fees and paperwork from companies housed in the state at record levels, Collins said.

Were pretty happy about that accomplishment, Collins said. Thats a big example of us collaborating with the Department of State, and has an impact on not only Delaware citizens, but the nation.

In addition, the states IT department has collaborated with several other agencies on IT projects, including developing a new system for the states child welfare department. The new system brings severalplatforms together into a new app that helps the department track cases throughout the state.

Contact the reporter who wrote this story at jake.williams@statescoop.com and follow him on Twitter @JakeWilliamsDC .