Salesforce Announces Customer Ability to Store and Process Federal Taxpayer Information in Government Cloud Plus

As federal, state and local agencies continue to look for ways to modernize their IT systems for a better employee and constituent experience, they have increasingly looked to move operations to the cloud. This shift has highlighted the importance of using cloud platform solutions that prioritize both innovation and security. 

That’s why we’re pleased to share that Government Cloud Plus has been independently assessed by an outside auditor to meet the IRS 1075 Publication Guidelines (IRS 1075), allowing public sector customers to receive, process, store and transmit Federal Taxpayer Information (FTI) data within Salesforce. 

Government Cloud Plus is a dedicated instance of Salesforce’s industry-leading multi-tenant cloud infrastructure specifically isolated for U.S. federal, state, and local government customers, U.S. government contractors, and federally funded research and development centers. Government Cloud Plus runs on AWS GovCloud (US), enabling enhanced security and compliance controls that allow customers to use Salesforce for the most sensitive, unclassified data. 

This milestone of allowing our customers to store and process FTI follows the launch of Government Cloud Plus last June, which achieved a FedRAMP Provisional Authority to Operate (P-ATO) at the High Security Impact Level.

This is an important step in Salesforce’s continued mission as a safe and trusted partner helping the public sector build the government of the future.

Government Cloud Plus customers now able to handle FTI data within Salesforce 

IRS 1075 provides guidelines to public sector agencies and private companies handling FTI. By meeting these guidelines, organizations can ensure adequate policies, controls and safeguards protecting confidential personal information including name, address, social security number and federal tax returns.

With Government Cloud Plus’ ability to store and process FTI, Salesforce customers can submit a pre-populated template form from within Government Cloud Plus to the IRS Office of Safeguards. This automatically works to notify the IRS of a customer’s intent to begin handling FTI within Salesforce. 

Once approved, customers can access crucial FTI and limit reliance on inefficient paper-based systems or external databases, which can drive up operating costs, lead to synchronization errors, and serve as a security risk. 

With this new access, public sector organizations will gain streamlined operations to view and process customer data. For example:

• A city’s Department of Licensing, Permitting or Inspections looking to ensure a business is up to date on tax payments can now use Government Cloud Plus to review permit applications and a restaurant’s tax information within the same dashboard. This new workflow decreases the length of time city employees spend reviewing applicant information, and expedites the permit approval process for the local business. 
• A state’s Department of Treasury can also now rely solely on Government Cloud Plus to manage taxpayer hearings or appeals. A treasury employee can review a constituent’s forms and tax data within the same dashboard, giving the department a centralized view and secure access. This also helps the department quickly process and resolve taxpayers appeals. 

A bright future for public sector IT 

We’ve seen a tremendous amount of innovation in the last year as the public sector has rapidly modernized to effectively scale resources in response to the global pandemic. These innovations represent an opportunity for the public sector to continue to reimagine how it can empower employees and deliver the best experience to constituents. 

With Government Cloud Plus now able to support customers who wish to store and process FTI, we look forward to continuing our work helping federal, state and local governments with their modernization efforts. 

To learn more about IRS 1075, see Trust and Compliance.  

Ready to sign up? Learn more about Government Cloud Plus here.