Tax notice rattles Rec Commission
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:20 p.m., January 22, 2008
Updated 01:20 p.m., January 22, 2008
Because of a clerical error, the Emporia Recreation Commission is trying to avoid a showdown with the Internal Revenue Service.
The IRS recently sent the commission a letter asking for $6,878 in back taxes, but the commission says the money was already paid. The bulk of that money, according to the commission, was incorrectly coded for the second quarter of 2006; the IRS believed it was shorted money for the third quarter of that year.
The discussion originally began as a means to approve a contract with Lowenthall, Singleton and Webb to audit the appropriate financial records and get the matter squared with the IRS. Lowenthall, Singleton and Webb has power of attorney on the commission’s financial matters. Ultimately, after debating ideas for dealing with the government, the commission decided to notify the IRS of the mistake and hold a special meeting at a later date to deal with the matter.
In addition to the tax error itself, commissioners were dismayed that the IRS sent them just one notice and marked it as their “final notice.”
Director Tom McEvoy wanted to send the $6,878 immediately with “right of appeal,” on the assumption that the IRS would figure out the mistake and send the money back. Other commissioners, though, didn’t think sending the money up front was a good idea.
Commissioner Jennifer Bennett thought sending the money in now would “further confuse the matter.”
“They’re going to think, ‘OK, they really did owe us that.’ You’ll never see it again,” she said. “Or it’ll be three years from now when that money will show back up to you.”
Commissioner Mike Helbert thought it would be a good idea to contact Rep. Jerry Moran and get his office to call the IRS.
“And they will get off of us within 30 seconds,” Helbert predicted.
Discussion on the matter ended with jokes about McEvoy ending up in federal prison as a result of the clash with the IRS.
“I’m from Leavenworth,” he said. “It’s just like going home.”
In other activity Monday, commissioners:
• Discussed models for a potential lease agreement with the city, which the recreation commission currently does not have. Assistant City Manager Mark McAnarney, who was present at the meeting, said the lease agreement issue would be discussed at an upcoming city commission work session.
• Approved 5th grade and 6th grade baseball and softball teams to travel for games in the Blue Stem and Rainbow leagues.
• Listened to McEvoy’s program report and his description of the format of the commission’s financial reports.
• Discussed the effectiveness of security cameras in use at the rec center. Among its successes, the commission said, the security camera system recently caught a group of kids defacing a bathroom with graffiti.
hjcary (anonymous) says...
Stand up for yourself Rec Center. The IRS sent us a notice last year for over $2000 from the year before. We were angry because they wait a whole year to send it and then tacked on interest. Well we knew we had done our taxes correctly and my husband had filed everything and was able to pull up all the papers, make copies and sent them in. Before sending them he refigured it and saw that not only did we not owe them money they owed us money. Sure enough a couple months later we got a check. Some people would have just rolled over and trusted them and paid up. If you know you are in the right do your work.
January 23, 2008 at 9:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )