LIVERMORE — A refund may be forthcoming on penalties and interest paid to the IRS last month for 2019 employer taxes.
Following an executive session on Oct. 26, selectpersons voted to pay almost $5,871 in federal employer’s taxes, penalties and interest owed from 2019. The payment was submitted electronically Oct. 28.
Questions on the matter emailed to Treasurer Amy Byron were not returned until Wednesday, Nov. 11.
“The Town makes biweekly deposits to the IRS as part of the payroll process. The deposits are made electronically through a system called EFTPS,” she wrote. “If those deposits are off by even a day we are penalized and interest accrues.”
According to Byron, the deposit dates were off for quarters one and four.
“One because of technology issues and the other because I was out sick,” Byron wrote. “Quarter two deposit was made on time but was applied to the wrong quarter. The IRS is not able to move deposits from one quarter to another.”
Byron wrote that she spoke with Tim McCann, IRS Small Business/Self-Employed Division, who showed a refund check being issued for the “overpaid quarter.”
“They are currently doing a payment tracer on that check and we expect a refund will be issued to the Town,” Byron wrote. “The board voted to pay in order to stop interest and penalties from accruing — even though we didn’t technically owe for quarter two.”
Byron did not provide answers regarding late payments charged to Livermore by the State of Maine.
Aaron Miller, who replaced Byron as administrative assistant to the board of selectpersons after she took a position in Livermore Falls, said in an Oct. 29 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.”
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