Columbus – A former fiscal officer of the Village of New Madison (Darke County) stuck taxpayers with more than $8,000 in federal penalties that resulted from her sluggishness.

An audit released today by Auditor of State Dave Yost shows that Wanda Lacey was consistently late in remitting federal, state and school district income taxes, and filing quarterly tax reports during 2013 and 2014. 

Although Lacey properly withheld the required taxes, she delayed paying federal withholdings for the second half of 2013 and all of 2014 until July 2015. By the end of 2014, the amount owed to the IRS had ballooned to $23,894 for back taxes, in addition to $8,166 in penalties and interest.

“This fiscal officer forced taxpayers to shoulder the consequences of her negligence,” Auditor Yost said. “She could have avoided these penalties by simply doing her job.”

At the same time, the village sat on $3,362 in state and school district income taxes that Lacey withheld but failed to pay to the Ohio Department of Taxation.

Auditors issued an $8,166 finding for recovery against Lacey and her bonding company for the federal penalties and referred the state matters to the Ohio Department of Taxation. 

“The payment of penalties and late charges is not considered to serve a proper public purpose and would have been avoided had the funds been remitted as required by law,” auditors wrote.

A full copy of this report is available online. 

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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio, is responsible for auditing more than 5,900 state and local government agencies.  Under the direction of Auditor Dave Yost, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies and promotes transparency in government.

Contact:
Beth Gianforcaro
Press Secretary
614-644-1111