WINNSBORO – Fairfield County is looking into ways to appeal approximately $1.4 million in IRS debt and penalties that came to light in December.
On Monday night, interim administrator Clay Killian outlined a series of steps he’s pursuing to try to cancel as much of the IRS debt as possible.
In a report to council, Killian said he’s reviewing the employee database to determine who’s eligible for insurance, which would assist in appealing IRS debt.
Much of the $1.4 million in debt is tied to penalties and interest stemming from late, incorrect and unfiled healthcare tax forms 1094 and 1095 and quarterly financial reports dating back to2017.
“We think our database may have created some confusion for the IRS,” Killian said. “We are going to try to sort that out, which may be the basis for at least part of an appeal.”
Fairfield County has also contacted U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman’s office for further assistance. Norman’s district includes Fairfield.
Killian said Norman’s office cautioned that the IRS response would not be quick.
“As you might expect the IRS does not reply quickly,” he said. “They (Norman’s office) do expect at least 30 days before the IRS will even respond to them and the response might be ‘we’ll need more time to look at it.’”
Killian said the county has also reached out to their auditing firm, which has a separate tax division in Georgia that handles IRS appeals. He noted the auditing firm signaled it would review Fairfield to see if there are any defendable appeals and grounds for such an appeal.
“They have been successful with appeals in the past but they wanted to review our situation,” Killian said.
Killian’s report mirrored many of the steps Fairfield citizens urged the county to pursue under the previous administration.
Don Goldbach of District 2 said Anne Bass, the county’s former finance director, successfully got 2018 penalties eliminated.
“What was the problem that caused five years of violations? Was it a people problem, a process problem, a procedure problem?” Goldbach asked. “Has any challenge been taken against these violations? Is anybody challenging the other years?”
In other business, council member voted unanimously to accept a new private road acceptance policy.
The new policy requires that driveways and common roads be brought up to S.C. Department of Transportation standards at the owner’s expense before applying to have Fairfield accept them into the county road system.
The cost and responsibility for doing so falls on the road owner and/or other residents living along the road.
