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FINANCE DEPARTMENT WATCHES FOR OVER-COLLECTING MERCHANTS

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, July 18, 2009 11:00 PM CDT

A change in the sales tax rate collected in Jefferson County and the possibility some merchants didn’t get the word has the state Department of Finance and Administration on the watch.

On July 1, the tax rate dropped from 1.5 percent to 1.25 percent, thanks to a sunset clause built into a half-cent tax increase approved by county voters in 2003 to build the new adult detention center.

“When we get the sales tax report, if it shows that a merchant over-collected the tax, we send them a letter to notify them of that, and show that over-payment as a credit,” Roberta Overman, manager of the Sales and Use Tax section of DF&A said. “They’re then required to refund that to customers if they can produce a receipt and show they over paid.”

Sales taxes for the month of July, the first with the lower tax rate, must be paid to the state by Aug. 20 and counties and cities who have local taxes receive their portion by the end of September.

“We’ve got 70,000 registered tax paying entities and process a minimum of 50,000 tax returns a month, so it takes a while to separate the state taxes from county and city taxes,” Overman said.

County Treasurer Elizabeth Rinchuso said the state has notified her office that they will turn over what ever is collected, and obvious over-payments will be held in reserve, in the event a person claims they were over charged.

As far as whether merchants are now collecting the lower tax, Richard Borgman of BBF Oil Co., the owners of a number of Exxon Family Stop Convenience stores in the county, said his company is.

“We got a notice from the state about the lower rate and we changed all our cash registers the first of July,” he said. “We’re collecting what the state told us to collect.”

Overman said most merchants complied with the change, and for those that may have forgotten, or didn’t get the word, their customers will let state officials know.

“We have customers call us all the time claiming they’ve been over charged, and I don’t think we’ve had any complaints from Jefferson County,” she said.

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