Canton backtracks on decision to outsource scanning of tax returns

The Zug cantonal government has decided that it will not, after all, outsource the scanning of tax returns to a private company and instead it will do the work itself.
 
The Cantonal Department of Finance announced on Thursday that it had come to a mutual agreement with the company previously charged with the scanning of tax returns to rescind the contract. Instead, the Zug Tax Office is to scan the returns itself from May 2015 onwards.
 
It was decided as long ago as December 2013 that all documents pertaining to tax returns should be transferred to electronic media, with scanning from April 2015 to be undertaken by a private company. With this latest change in policy it can be assured that no details of tax returns, whether in electronic or physical form, will leave the confines of the cantonal offices administration.
 
Indeed this will be undertaken in future by the data processing service of the Office for IT and Organisation with all documents subsequently destroyed or kept in archives for storage. This means that the private company previously charged with scanning will have no access whatsoever to any programmes or data submitted. These latest procedures have also been discussed in detail with the data protection services of the canton of Zug.
 
Earlier this year much consternation was expressed when Peter Hegglin, the cantonal director of finance, announced that this work was to be outsourced to RR Donnelly, a subsidiary of an American company, even though it operated from the canton of Zurich and was subject to Swiss law.