Madison Co. Commission responds after fine by IRS

JACKSON, Tenn. — Future plans for Madison County could be put on hold after a $200,000 dollar fine from the IRS.

“They just failed to send a report in to the IRS,” Commission Chairman Gary Deaton said.

Deaton says the IRS issued a $200,000 fine to Madison County because the county failed to send a report of their issued W-2 forms.

“January 31 of 2015, all the county employees received their W-2 forms, and I believe that had to be turned in by April of that same year, but it wasn’t,” Deaton said.

Deaton says a report was not sent until August 2016.

He says he first heard about the fine just a few days ago because the county finance director was appealing the fine.

“I think they appealed it twice, and I think they’ve been rejected both times,” Deaton said. “Now we have a CPA looking at it to see if they can get that overturned. That’s where we are right now.”

Deaton says, hopefully, the IRS will accept the most recent appeal.

“Well, we’d like for them to take it all off. That would be the 100 percent goal, but will they do that? I don’t know,” Deaton said. “When you’re dealing with the IRS, you never know exactly how the response will be.”

If the fine isn’t reduced, the full $200,000 fine could have an impact on the Jackson-Madison County School System, as well as other plans put in place for the future.

“It can affect everything to some degree,” Deaton said. “It could short-circuit a couple of things.”

And with the government shut down, he says there’s no telling when the county will hear back from the IRS.

The IRS says an appeal can take a while to settle, depending on the nature of the case.