Inland Revenue Offers Tax Payers Telephone Tax Filing

Fifty thousand UK taxpayers have this year been given the opportunity to file the new self-assessment short tax return over the telephone, following last year's successful pilot of the Inland Revenue's advanced speech recognition service.  The implementation of the advanced speech recognition service called Telefiling was managed and completed by Capgemini. The solution was delivered using voice recognition technology from VoxGen who worked alongside Capgemini.
 
The Inland Revenue tasked Capgemini with the design, build, deployment and pilot of this key new service.  The goal of Telefiling is to offer the Inland Revenue's customers a universal, efficient and cost-effective alternative to paper filing.  The telephone offers access to everyone.

"We recognize the need to offer our customers more choice and by embracing innovative speech technology we are able to offer them a telephone-based self-service alternative to filing by paper.  Feedback following last year's trial was immensely positive with the majority of customers saying they would use the system again this year" says Barry Glassberg, e-Services director, Inland Revenue

The solution offers interactive real-time guidance to the user while they complete their tax return.  It is an end-to-end solution enabling customers to file by telephone, in one or more calls, without sending in a paper form.  At the end of their call customers are given an estimate of any rebate or liability.