Rogers finds state error worth $30,000 a year: Money comes from taxes which were distributed incorrectly
Warren County’s coffers will be almost $30,000 richer once some Hall Income Tax and sales tax dollars mistakenly distributed to local municipalities by the state are redistributed to the county.
“What this is,” said County Executive Kenneth Rogers, “is some tax that we’ve recouped that was erroneously distributed out by the state to other entities in the county. Through the research of this office, we got back $29,522.”
Rogers said $15,750 of this amount came from the Hall tax and $13,772 from sales tax.
According to Tennessee Code Annotated, the Hall Income Tax is a tax on income derived from stocks and bonds. There are numerous exemptions including a $1,250 personal exemption on individual returns, and $2,500 on joint returns. The Hall tax rate is 6 percent. Up to 10 percent of the first $200,000 collected, and 5 percent of amounts over $200,000, go to the Department of Revenue for administration. Of the remainder, 5/8 goes to the state general fund and 3/8 is distributed back to the counties and cities in which the taxpayers have residence.
The funds were recovered when Rogers’ office discovered some of the addresses were incorrectly listed by the state as being in local municipalities when they were actually county addresses.
“We were learning about this in one of the classes that I was taking,” he said. “They were talking about the Hall tax and that’s why we sent to the state to find out who was paying and what was going where.”
Once a list of addresses was supplied by the state, Rogers’ office checked the addresses individually from the list and determined which were actually county addresses that were currently listed otherwise. The error in distribution of the sales tax portion was discovered in the same manner. Rogers made it clear all his office could see were addresses, not the amount of taxes being paid.
“It is not the fault of anybody here locally,” he said. Rogers said the state only allowed his office to go back one year to collect back taxes, but that this money would now be corrected distributed to the county each year.
The county executive said he also plans to get information from the state on surrounding counties and check those for possible errors in addresses in an effort to recoup some tax dollars there as well.
“As county executive I think it’s my responsibility to get all the money that’s supposed to come to the county into the county,” Rogers said.