Contact:  Patty Mayers, Communications Director
608.266.2300 or DORCommunications@wisconsin.gov

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) recently reached a milestone with its one millionth video view, and, not surprisingly, it happened in the middle of tax season.

“We have lots of information online and in printed form,” says DOR Secretary Peter Barca, “but we’ve noticed an increasing number of customers prefer to watch an instructional video, so this is just another way we can provide customers with the information they need and the service they want.”

Education is the primary driver behind DOR’s videos. An example of this is the Tax 101 video series, which receive more than 50,000 views every tax season. Each video is an approximately two-minute tutorial with step-by-step instructions on navigating a specific tax tool or process. Standalone videos, like “Understanding Sales Tax for Residential and Real Property,” use whiteboard animation technology to illustrate complex topics.  DOR also uses video to better train staff.

The push to produce videos began with a desire to provide Wisconsin taxpayers with easy-to-follow visual instruction. Since 2009, DOR has created more than 300 videos.

The main mission throughout the production process is assisting taxpayers, but an added bonus comes from saving them money by creating professionally produced videos in-house; no production is outsourced.

In addition to videos, DOR’s Research and Policy Division offers a number of interactive data reports which allow users to examine economic and tax data, through the use of interactive graphs and charts. More than a dozen reports are currently available including Local Government DashboardSales Tax by Industry and Wisconsin Exports. 

Video production and data visualization are part of a larger communication platform at DOR that includes community outreach, social media, customer service call centers, customer walk-in counters and a content-rich website at www.revenue.wi.gov.

To see a full collection of department videos, visit the Video Center page of the DOR website.

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