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Boston pays nearly $1 million in IRS penalties for sloppy accounting

More than just the school department was doing stupid stuff, the Globe reports.

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that Marty got his end.

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But why bother?

Porque no?

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you just did.

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If you or I did this we'd be in prison. Why aren't city employees criminally accountable? The fine will be passed to Boston taxpayers.

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Because there is a difference between fraud and incompetency.

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"“The individuals responsible for the school activity funds had various reasons for not having any payments go through the payroll system including: ‘Those records were thrown out, I was unaware of documentation needed, responses are based on memory, no recollection of what payments were for, the person wasn’t a city employee, therefore not on payroll, I had no access to making a payroll payment, I don’t have the names, the work was not covered by our BPS budget, they were temporary positions,’ ” according to the audit.""

Probably never dreamed that the IRS would audit a government organization.

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Probably never dreamed that the IRS would audit a government organization.

Yeah, up till now they were focused on shutting down non profit tea baggers. What gives?

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"Yeah, up till now they were focused on shutting down non profit tea baggers. What gives?"

You mean the ones that just won a multi million dollar settlement against the IRS?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/us/politics/irs-tea-party-lawsuit-set...

Latest info? Like $3.5 mill.

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Keep electing all incumbents because everything is perfect in our city.

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No - you wouldn't be in prison. The only thing the state/feds care about is getting their tax $ and any associated interest and penalties. In my past life as an auditor for the Commonwealth prosecuting businesses for paying workers under the table was perceived as "more tax dollars wasted" - and honestly, judges really didn't want to hear these cases - they would often throw it back on whatever State agency to "cut a deal." Getting the business to pay up the unpaid tax would reimburse the Commonwealth coiffures and the interest and penalties would go into the budget for said state agency. Also, I would say easily more than half the businesses I audited paid people under the table or misclassified them as a "sub." Not excusing the City - someone turned a blind eye.

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Marty was re-elected!

You do these things to yourself, Boston.

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That this comes out after the election. Doubtful it would have swayed anyone into voting for Tito, but could have made it more interesting. I'd love to know the total $ amount paid by taxpayers for all of this admin's mistakes (lawsuits, Boston2024, etc)

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That this comes out after the election. Doubtful it would have swayed anyone into voting, but could have made it more interesting.

The fact that 73% of the city just flat out doesn't care is a significant part of the problem.

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This is a much bigger issue than previously represented by either City Hall or the BPS Administration. While I possess neither the facts nor evidence of anyone's wrong-doing (and therefore I won't declare who is responsible for this) t is clear from the $1 million fine was not assessed for a minor administrative snafu.

The formula the IRS uses to calculate fines and penalties is fairly convoluted. By one estimate I heard about penalties are 5 percent of the unpaid tax due for each month -- up to 25 percent. For every $500 in taxes owed, the 25 percent penalty may be $125. This is primarily for individuals - I suspect for organizations may be different but equally draconian.

What is clear is that the IRS considered this to be a major problem - what is troubling to me is that this problem was known about for quite awhile but once again Walsh et al "knew nothing about it." That seems odd as the check was presented at City Hall on Nov 7th - sounds a lot like the excuse for the Olympics or car racing - didn't read the contract, etc., etc. etc.

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Come on, Marty:

"Walsh’s office had no explanation why the mayor didn’t know about the school audit findings, even though the city paid off the penalties for all seven audit findings, totalling $944,000, earlier this month."

Did ya not think that this might be part of a much larger problem, Mr. Mayor? So the city shells out close to one million (cost of doing business, amiright?) for not one but seven audit findings and no one thinks anything about it?

Corrupt politicians corrupt.

And, more importantly, this is such sloppy accounting that I, as someone who does the work professionally, can only cringe. Throwing away receipts? Good. Gawd. And the list of excuses? The only one missing is "Hey, it's my first day!"

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Because this surely warrants letting people go, or does that only apply to the non pension, non unionized working class?

Public pension need to end!

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Time to rotundi the plaustri

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