LIVERMORE — The Livermore Board of Selectpersons has voted to pay the Internal Revenue Service about $5,870 in federal employer taxes, penalties and interest owed from 2019.
The payment was submitted electronically Oct. 28.
The board voted Oct. 26 to pay $351 for the first quarter, $5,123 for the second quarter and almost $396 for the fourth quarter.
Calls Oct. 26 and Oct. 29 to board Chairman Mark Chretien were not returned.
Questions emailed Oct. 30 to Treasurer Amy Byron after calls earlier in the week also went unreturned.
“I will be away from the office until Monday November 2 recovering from surgery. I will have limited availability by email but I will respond as soon as possible,” Byron emailed later that day.
“I will answer after work today,” Byron wrote in response to another email Nov. 6.
That evening, she emailed, “I haven’t forgotten you… ran into issues at the office.” Nothing further has been received.
In June, Byron was hired as tax collector and register of voters in Livermore Falls. In addition to being treasurer in Livermore, she had been the administrative assistant to the Board of Selectpersons since 2016.
Several calls over the past two weeks to Tim McMann of the IRS Small Business/Self-Employed Division, also went unreturned.
When contacted by email Oct. 30, Aaron Miller, administrative assistant to the Board of Selectpersons, wrote that the federal employer’s tax payments for the first, second and fourth quarters of 2019 were not paid on time.
The IRS assesses a 0.5% monthly interest fee on taxes not paid by the due date. The penalty applies even if the return was filed on time.
“I understand that the State of Maine has charged late penalties to the Town in recent years,” Miller wrote in his email. “According to the state’s Department of Labor Bureau of Unemployment Compensation, $25 payroll penalties have been charged to the town for: fourth quarter 2016; third quarter 2018; second quarter 2019; first and second quarters for 2020.”
Miller added that Livermore officials are working on an internal control policy that will address issues with the town’s payroll.
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