2016-17 New Features & Enhancements
It’s an electronically driven world out there and even premium taxes are leaving paper behind. Each year more states are opting for mandatory efile requirements and we are working hard to make those clicks as easy and convenient for you as possible.

Efile via OPTins: Choose Credit or Debit
You have options! With the help and support of the industry and trade groups, TriTech was able to request enhancements to the OPTins system—specifically the ability for Premium Pro users to pay using ACH credit when filing their returns. This option is currently available in the software. It's ready to go—make sure you are too! more info}  

Payment Options
On the Payment Information tab in the efile wizard, you may choose whether you are paying via credit or debit from the dropdown box. The payment breakdown provides an itemized list of state specific tax and fee amounts, the OPTins transaction fee, and the total amount due.

Review Return before Submitting
On the Finalize Submission tab, you may now review the Excel version of your return, which will be sent to OPTins. The Excel file is for review purposes only and cannot be edited.

Email Preview
For states that you efile via email, you now have the option to preview the email and attachments before you submit the filing to the state.

More New Features
In addition to efile, check out these new features too!

Retaliatory Returns
When your company’s current state of domicile is AZ, MA, MN, RI, NY, or HI, the Reciprocal States option allows you to hide and not print retaliatory returns for the reciprocal states. E.g., for a company domiciled in AZ, when the option is checked, the retaliatory returns for MA, MN, RI, NY, and HI will be hidden and they won’t print with the return. more info}

Preparer Signature Stamp
The Preparer Signature Tool allows you to place a stamp of the preparer’s signature on returns. This tool is intended for use by paid preparers on returns that specifically allow such signatures. more info}

Addenda Schedule
As efiling becomes more prevalent, electronic payment via ACH credit or debit is increasingly required by states as well. To help facilitate the myriad of payment methods available, TriTech has created an Addenda Schedule. The Addenda Schedule has a designated area to store your banking information for easy access. When called for, a complete addenda record will be generated for each required payment. more info}

See All
See the complete Enhancement Index for the 2016-17 software. more info}

TriTech Services Celebrates 10 Years
Thank you for ten wonderful years! TriTech Services, Inc. began in 2006 with a handful of processors agreeing to assist an existing software client with their premium tax filings, per client request, due to a large corporate acquisition. From the start, TriTech Services leveraged its industry-leading Premium Pro tax software to focus on providing the best services in preparing, reviewing, and processing premium tax returns. Today, 55+ employees, many of whom are past clients who have brought their insurance tax expertise to TriTech, are hard at work in our tax services department. We currently service more than 200 insurance companies and process around 75,000 annual and estimated filings.

As each filing season goes by, TriTech Services increases the number of clients and services we are able to offer. We have assisted numerous groups of companies through difficult year-end filing seasons due to situations such as loss of key staff or corporate acquisitions. Our experience and client trust continues to grow in the insurance tax industry as we add new services and gain vetted premium tax experts on our team. We are a strong industry service provider, as well as employer that continually generates new job opportunities for experienced tax professionals. Thank you for 10 years of trusting our services!

The People behind the Software
TriTech is proud of our software and the relationships we enjoy with our clients. And we are also proud of our employees and the TriTech family that make our software and services possible. Last year, TriTech sponsored a Christmas mission to raise money to buy homes for five impoverished families in Guatemala. Our employees rose up to the challenge and we exceeded our goal. We followed up with a mission trip to Guatemala this summer to help build homes for such families through the Hope of Life ministries.

This year we also have been lucky enough to volunteer at the local Dallas ministry, Hands & Hearts, pitch in to supply local children in need with school supplies, and send care packages to our Guatemalan families to help transform their new houses into their new homes.

Mission Trips: Guatemala & Africa
TriTech employees Sally Agreda, Karen Sourber, Cathy Han, Joyce Voyles, Chris Hertzog, Robby McCollom, and Colton McCollom traveled to Guatemala to join Carlos Vargas and the Hope of Life in their mission to save the lives of the impoverished Guatemalan people. The people of Guatemala are fighting drugs, gangs, money laundering, corruption, drought, malnutrition, and lack of shelter, jobs, and medical facilities. Among many other services, the Hope of Life provides food, jobs, shelter, and ministry to the suffering Guatemalan people.

During their visit, the TriTech group went to a landfill to provide food to feed those who live and scavenge in the area. The Hope of Life sets up a food distribution center two to three times a week, and for many families it is their only source of food. The people form long lines, patiently waiting to fill the filthy bowls that will sustain them for days.

“I spotted a mom with her three kids sitting under a tree. They were sitting on their big bags of trash eating the noodles we had served them. I found myself unconsciously staring at them. The mom seemed to be in her forties but the hard life had carved lines on her dark face. Our eyes met and we smiled at each other. With the language barrier, I could only nod my head and continue to smile. She did the same. All of the sudden, it dawned on me! There was really nothing different between us other than our birth places. I, also a hardworking mother of three, could easily have been this woman, gathering trash until my hands gave out. I could be the one sitting there with my kids eating the food people distributed to me. Why should her daughter’s life be any different from my daughter’s? All of the education and opportunities I received while growing up were handed to me. I don’t deserve any of it, and none of it was obligated to me. This incredible humbling feeling just overtook me to the point that I stood frozen on the site.” –Cathy Han, TriTech Co-Owner

TriTech also toured the Hope of Life community and met with the people and families they were there to help. This organization operates a care facility for the elderly, an orphanage, a hospital, and a school. Children affected by special needs, developmental disorders and physical disabilities often suffer the most in impoverished rural communities. Kelly’s House provides a place for these children to receive the emotional and medical care they need.

“The children in Kelly’s House have been separated from their parents because the families often do not have enough food to feed them. A child who doesn’t receive the right nutrition in their earliest years doesn’t develop normally physically, emotionally or mentally. Most of the children in Kelly’s House are confined to a wheelchair and are severely mentally handicapped due to nothing more than a lack of food in their early lives. Some of the residents are as old as 25, but they are dependent on the staff for their every need. The staff takes care of residents, but they do not always have time to play and interact with the little ones. They especially enjoy getting visitors. One little boy was crying when we went into his room, but we started playing hide and seek and he instantly became all smiles.” –Joyce Voyles, Premium Tax Specialist

The houses TriTech raised money for were built earlier in the year, but the group assisted with another five-house building project and dedication. Our volunteers split up into five teams for the five houses and each team worked side by side with the family that was receiving the new house.

“The family Joyce and I worked with consisted of dad (Dimas), mom (Myra), sister (Katarina/Katy) and little brother (Samuel). They were renters and were constantly having to move from place to place. Dad and mom were bursting with excitement, thankfulness and dreams. They were the nicest, hardest working people you could’ve hoped for. While we were talking to them they told us about the dreams they had for their house and what they wanted to place where. It was so cool and humbling to hear their dreams. I could hear my parents’ hopes and dreams while I talked to them. I’m sure they’re the same dreams all parents have for their children.” –Sally Agreda, TriTech Training Coordinator

Not to be out-vaccinated, Karen Sourber also made the long journey to the jungles of Africa in the country of Senegal to embark on her second mission trip of the year. Her group’s purpose was to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the tribe, Jola Bayot, who live in six surrounding villages.

“When our church first came upon one man, he was stumbling drunk and high. The people consume palm wine they make from the palm dates of the jungle. He told us on this trip how different he is compared to then and you could see the joy in his eyes. He once was not only ruled by alcohol and drugs, but immoral behavior defined him. He has suffered persecution as people tried to spread horrible rumors about him while we were there. Since many are not happy about him now being a Christian, they are trying to hurt him by spreading these false rumors. But he does not let this slow him down and he is rising up as a Christian leader. While I was there, I witnessed his mom being baptized in the river as she too chose to follow Christ. He is telling others about how God saves and people are responding. God is moving powerfully among the Jola Bayot and it was such a privilege to be a part of this amazing work!” –Karen Sourber, TriTech Customer Service Representative

The The Lord’s Hands & Hearts Ministries, Inc. is a Dallas volunteer driven organization that seeks to reach the lost and broken with the love and compassion of God to address issues of poverty, addiction, oppression, discouragement, and hopelessness. Sally Agreda, Joyce Voyles, Nick English, Jennifer Xu, Brandon Bates, Cathy Han, Stephen Crim, and Trish Harjes of TriTech volunteered their time to help feed the homeless and pick up trash near Dallas’s Tent City.

“When we arrived at the charity tent, I was shocked to see how many people came not to eat or get clothes, but rather to sleep. Many individuals in that area do not sleep at night because it is way too dangerous. Our group noticed how bad off that part of town was firsthand since we were assigned trash duty, which sounds easy and quick, but we soon discovered you could spend all day cleaning up one lot. Bobby Hayden, Jr. came to speak that day. Bobby isn’t a normal preacher that talks soft and makes you feel safe—he is an in-your-face, tell-you-how-it-is type of speaker. One sentence from Bobby’s speech stood out above everything to me. ‘Once I was addicted to drugs. Now I’m addicted to God. One will kill you and one is life itself. You can’t have both.’ It made me realize that it doesn’t matter if you are rich, poor, black , white, tall, short, do drugs, etc. God will accept you how you are, wherever you are, no matter what you’ve done. I believe TriTech went into the day with a goal to help feed the homeless community, but walked out realizing just how blessed we are—not only from money, or because we have food and shelter, but because we have God.” –Brandon Bates, Premium Tax Specialist