Improvements at the Washington State Department of Revenue (Revenue) have made doing business with the agency easier than ever.

Revenue is one of the first agencies in Washington state government to add Live Chat as a customer service option. Live Chat allows taxpayers to ask basic tax questions with a click of the mouse and receive an immediate response from a tax specialist who can provide them with the information they need.

“The addition of Live Chat is just one of the many ways we’re working to better serve our customers’ needs,” Revenue Director Carol K. Nelson said. “Our customers can easily get answers to their questions and more quickly get back to the business of running their business.”

Revenue launched the Live Chat option in January 2014, and many taxpayers are using the service. Tax specialists have answered more than 9,600 chat requests in the first 10 months of the service.

Several other improvements allow taxpayers to:

• Amend their tax returns online. If a business makes a mistake on its previously filed tax return, it can amend that return online. Taxpayers have amended more than 69,000 tax returns electronically since May 2013.

• Learn about paying business taxes through Revenue’s New Business webinar. This free live webinar allows taxpayers to participate in a new business tax workshop – no matter where they live in the state – and save the time and cost of driving to an in-person workshop.

Several of Revenue’s online customer service tools were singled out as the reason Washington state won first place in a Digital State’s Survey category this year. The state’s overall grade improved to a B+ thanks to Revenue’s ingenuity in the areas of online tax revenue management, online business licensing and registration and the sales tax rate mobile app Revenue created.