Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
ERWIN TOWNSHIP — While Erwin Township overpaid the IRS in 2011, township Clerk Vicky Finco announced Wednesday at the township’s Board of Trustees meeting the IRS was denying a refund because the reimbursement claim was filed too late.
Finco said she received three letters from the IRS, each regarding a quarter of 2011, informing her that the township’s failure to file the proper Form 941s within three years meant it couldn’t be refunded the overpayment.
Finco said the issues arose during Priscilla Gerovac’s tenure as township’s clerk. Finco was appointed clerk in June.
“I received three letters from (the IRS) in regards to the 2011 941 reports I had to reconstruct that had never been filed,” Finco said. “The former clerk paid the taxes — the deposits for that period of time — but she never filed any reports, so they were going to charge (the township) if they weren’t reconstructed. So I reconstructed them, sent them in ... so now they’ve processed them and they notified me on three of the four quarters, so far.”
Finco said the township paid an extra $118 in the first quarter, $38 in the second quarter and a fourth-quarter overpayment of $517 for an approximate credit of $673.
“But they notified me that they can’t allow our claim for the credit, we can’t get this money, because we were longer than the three years that you’re allowed to file a report on time,” Finco said. She warned the township still needs to hear from the IRS regarding the third quarter of 2011.
Finco said while the township could appeal the decision, it doesn’t appear to meet any of the criteria for a different decision, such as serving in a combat zone or a financial disability.
“So the good news is we don’t owe anything more for that year, but money we should have had coming back to us, we can’t get it,” Finco said.
The township’s issues with the IRS first came to light in August when township Supervisor Larry Grimsby announced that the township discovered it wasn’t up to date on the payments and forms required by the federal government.
At the time, Grimsby said the township owed a total of $1,843 in fees and penalties for either failing to pay the monthly deposits required for the 941 forms and or the late filing of quarterly reports.
Gerovac was also bound over to Gogebic Circuit Court in November on two felony embezzlement charges.
