FAIRFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — Fairfield County officials are grappling with the fallout from missed and incorrect tax filings, which could result in over $1.4 million in penalties to the IRS.
The county hopes to recoup some of the hundreds of thousands of dollars already paid in late fees.
The hefty sum stems from a failure to file the necessary paperwork on time, an oversight that spans several years.
According to Interim County Administrator Clay Killian, the penalties are related to late or erroneous annual healthcare and quarterly IRS forms from tax years 2017 to 2024.
"The challenge was for a number of years those forms either weren’t submitted or we're submitted and had errors and weren’t accepted by the IRS," said Killian.
Efforts to rectify the situation are ongoing. "We have caught up on all submissions except for one year. We tried it Monday, but it was rejected all the other ones we're accepted, so we think we’ve got the errors figured, out so we're hoping to get those corrected and submitted by the end of the week, and they get it accepted," he added.
The issue was identified before Killian took his position in February.
According to reports from December, staff discovered the discrepancies while preparing year-end tax information.
"Through different turnovers and transitions, some of that stuff did not get followed up on and that's where the penalties came into play," Killian explained.
Fairfield County initially owed $1.4 million in late fees but has since paid $768,000 from the county fund balance. The county is now appealing to the IRS to recover these funds, having hired an auditor during the last county council meeting to assist with the process.
In response to the debacle, the county has implemented new measures to ensure such errors do not recur.
"We’ve changed our procedures in-house, as to who is the one or the department to file those forms in a timely fashion, " Killian said.
The county did not provide a timeline for if and when they are hoping to have the fees appealed.