Another notable achievement was the introduction in 1997 of the 1-888-2PAY-TAX program, allowing payment of tax bills over the phone by credit card. Due to its success, this same system was adopted in 1999 by the Internal Revenue Service. Recent innovations and improvements to the Arlington County Treasury operations include the Billpayer Notification program, begun in 2005, which generates an automatic email to taxpayers whenever they incur any form of debt with Arlington County; and the Neighborhood Payment program, begun in 2005, which allows Arlington tax payers to pay tax bills at participating local retailers.