Editor’s note ” Dana Ackerman is Taxpayer Advocate for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

As the Taxpayer Advocate for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR), I am pleased to announce that DOR is today rolling out a new online tax system called MassTaxConnect. Starting this morning, the new system replaces DOR’s existing e-filing system, WebFile for Business.

MassTaxConnect will be available to individual income taxpayers by 2017.

MassTaxConnect represents a significant investment in information technology that will benefit DOR, taxpayers and the business community. DOR employees will benefit from a centralized system allowing for enhanced and speedier customer service to business taxpayers across the commonwealth. Taxpayers will benefit from a system that will enhance voluntary compliance and allow for efficiencies that our current system cannot host.

And perhaps most importantly, the business community will benefit from a modernized system that will make filing and paying taxes in Massachusetts simpler, quicker, and more efficient than ever before.

MassTaxConnect retains a number of important functionalities currently available in WebFile for Business. For example, MassTaxConnect will continue to allow taxpayers and practitioners to schedule payments, to choose to file early, and to benefit from automatic calculations and error alerts. Filing taxes with DOR will continue to be free with MassTaxConnect.

The new system offers a range of new benefits to business taxpayers and practitioners, including the ability to send secure messages, a simplified process for amended returns, assigning third-party access electronically and access to most business taxes in one spot for filing and payment. Existing WebFile for Business users will be able to log in to MassTaxConnect today with their existing WebFile for Business username and password. We’ve also created this webpage that has everything you need to know about registration and enrollment, MassTaxConnect FAQs, and other important materials.

Associated Industries of Massachusetts has played a significant role in supporting the development of MassTaxConnect. Paul O’Connor, Director of Taxes at EMD Millipore and Chairman of the AIM Taxation Committee, led a group of AIM-member tax professionals that met with DOR over three years to ensure that the new system met the needs of business taxpayers of all types of sizes.

Modernization isn’t merely technological. MassTaxConnect is not only an upgrade to our information technology infrastructure, it’s also a deliberate effort and conscious investment on our part to rethink tax administration in Massachusetts. As you can see in this sneak peek at MassTaxConnect, it  is adaptive, holistic and the result of years of work, sound policy, and planning.

The business community is essential to a healthy and prosperous commonwealth. MassTaxConnect takes us another step closer toward making Massachusetts a great place to do business, and I hope that you will find it a welcome upgrade when you visit the site this morning.