IRS officials have imposed a $32,236 penalty on Cocke County.
County officials, of course, will use additional taxpayer money to pay that fine.
This, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released Tuesday.
“Cocke County maintains a payroll clearing bank account to deposit employee payroll taxes due to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and is required to notify the IRS of all deposits so withdrawals can be made from the county’s account timely,” according to the audit.
“The payroll tax deposits for the December 31, 2018, tax period were made to the clearing account; however, the county failed to notify the IRS timely to provide for the withdrawal of the deposits resulting in the assessment of $32,236 in penalty and interest.”
In a written statement, county officials said it is important to pay the IRS on time. They also said the county’s finance director has created an online EFTPS account to review payments each quarter with the review of the Form 941 submissions.
IRS officials have penalized other Tennessee counties of late.
As The Tennessee Star reported last week, federal officials recently penalized Sevier County with a fine of nearly $45,000 for not complying with IRS regulations.
As for Sevier County, the problem had to do with a bank account local officials use to deposit employee payroll taxes.
As The Tennessee Star reported last year:
• Rockwood, Tennessee’s public utility officials didn’t file the proper Obamacare forms with the Internal Revenue Service on time, and now the utility must pay the feds more than $25,0000 in penalty costs.
• The IRS assessed nearly $400,000 in penalties and interests against the Maury County School Department.
• The IRS fined Jackson County officials a sum of $86,147 for failing to comply with Obamacare.
• The Grundy County School System had to pay more than $34,000 in penalties to the IRS for not complying with Obamacare.
• Hancock County officials did not remit two payroll tax deposits to the Internal Revenue Service, which caused an assessment of interest and penalties totaling more than $2,000.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Cocke County Courthouse” by Dwight Burdette. CC BY 3.0.
Tennessee counties should form sanctuary cities AGAINST the IRS. Stop cooperating with the IRS.