Government tax man joins AMS
A former Treasury official who also worked for three states will lead AMS state and local division
John LaFaver, former director of the Treasury Department's International
Tax Advisory System, has joined American Management Systems Inc. as vice
president of its State and Local Solutions Group.
Before working for Treasury, LaFaver headed tax departments in Maine,
Montana and Kansas. While in Kansas, he made a name for himself with sweeping
changes to the state's revenue department.
"Kansas was the first really top-to-bottom rethinking of a revenue agency
in years," LaFaver said. "Working with AMS in Kansas really showed me that
they had the best approach to the process, which leads to the best solutions
to the problems."
Paramount among those problems, according to LaFaver, is a lack of communication
between taxpayer and agency. A taxpayer, LaFaver said, should be looked
at as a customer, with questions, concerns, interests and even enthusiasm
about the tax process.
"It's really all about a number of communications," LaFaver said. "And
regardless if it's online or by mail, if you can't pull all those communications
together, then all of this new technology is going to waste."
Virginia-based AMS is a $1.28 billion information technology consulting
firm that works with 43 state governments, most federal agencies and hundreds
of Fortune 500 companies.
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