Schuylkill County passes audit

An Internal Revenue Service audit of Schuylkill County has turned up no problems, according to Controller Christy D. Joy.

“The IRS has issued a notice that there were no errors for the 2015 tax period and that no changes were warranted,” he said in a prepared statement Thursday.

The IRS notified the county on June 22, 2017, that it would perform the audit.

In addition to auditing paperwork, they would interview personnel and review employment-related procedures.

“I would first like to thank the controller’s office staff for assuring our tax compliance. Secondly, I would like to thank the Pennsylvania Association of County Controllers for their educational programs on the complex and ever-changing rules on taxable fringe benefits. And lastly, the county commissioners for moving payroll back under the duties of the controller’s office,” Joy said.

“After the initial personnel interview, I was confident that my staff was well-positioned for this audit.”

He said other counties have not fared as well. The Ward County controller is appealing a $102,000 bill from a similar audit. Monroe, Cambria and Lycoming counties also have been scrutinized in recent years.

“One of the issues targeted was taxable fringe benefits, which appear to have been escalating in error rates. I am glad that 2015 was examined and not 2014,” Joy said. “I refused to sign the 2014 county’s #941 return because some of these fringe benefits were not being reported correctly.”

When Schuylkill County investigated the merits of subcontracting payroll taxes to a third party, the primary third party candidate suggested that the controller’s office would be the more accurate and cost effective venue for fringe benefit tax processing, Joy said.

In early 2015, the county created the payroll specialist position in the controller’s office, which paved the way for this successful audit, he said.

In 2015, the county paid 952 employees 71,360 times, and processed 17,425 account payable disbursements, Joy said.