The Internal Revenue Service has assessed nearly $400,000 in penalties and interests against the Maury County School Department, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. The fines and penalties come from 2016 and 2017, according to the audit. County taxpayers, of course, are the ones who must foot the bill. In the third quarter of 2016, school system officials paid $70,477 in late penalties plus interest. Later that year, in the fourth quarter, IRS officials fined the school system officials a total of $51,498. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the amount the IRS fined the school system was considerably less, only $707. “The School Department paid $79,321 on April 20, 2018, $40,478 on July 5, 2018, and the remaining $2,883 was paid using tax credits applied from other tax periods for a total of $122,682 ($79,321 plus $40,478 plus $2,883),” auditors wrote. “The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assessed additional Federal Tax Deposit Penalties of $99,789 for the 3rd Quarter 2016 and $148,543 for the 1st Quarter 2017 employment tax returns. These penalties were later abated. These penalties resulted from a lack of management oversight.” Therefore, auditors went on to say, the IRS assessed interest and penalties a…
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