NWACC appeals tax penalty for late payments

Submitted by The City Wire Staff on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 5:44pm

NorthWest Arkansas Community College has again admitted to three recent late payments to the Internal Revenue Service, saying it will appeal the fines of approximately $5,500.

Dr. Becky Paneitz, president of the college, released this statement Friday (June 15):
“We sincerely regret that three of our recent payroll tax payments to the Internal Revenue Service were posted after the deadline. We are appealing the penalties the IRS assessed because NWACC disputes the number of days for which these penalties could have been assessed. While we remain hopeful that the penalties will be reduced or waived, we also recognize that this issue must be addressed immediately and permanently. There is no reason that NWACC should not process these payments properly and in a timely manner.  As President of NorthWest Community College, I am ultimately responsible for all financial matters, including financial reporting, to our public and to our dedicated Board of Trustees.”

This recent gaffe in filings comes on the heels of five other incidents of late payments dating back to 2009. Between 2009 and October 2011, the college was fined nearly $70,000 for late payments.

Three late tax payments to the IRS in 2011 resulted in a $26,760 fine, which the college paid in June of last year. The college paid another $2,375 penalty to the state for late withholding wage taxes due October 2010.

In reconciling differences in payroll the community college recapped the three recent late payments as follows::
June 30, 2011 - late payment charge of $5
Dec. 31, 2011 - late penalty charge of $425
March 31, 2012 - “potential penalty” of $5,103 regarding late payment which NWACC has appealed

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“We take these mistakes very seriously and are reviewing our processes again to make certain this problem is resolved. While there were recent changes made in our processes and procedures, the college will once again revisit this specific area and further update the NWACC Board of Trustees at the July 2012, retreat addressing specific corrective actions,” said Alex Vasquez, chairman of board for NWACC.

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NWACC screws up yet again!

Submitted by Nick Hillyard on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 10:18pm.

Seriously, how many more times are they going to screw up reporting to the IRS, wasting even more taxpayer $ and student tuition to pay these fines? This is a process they have been doing regularly since they have been in existence, as does every institution and business across the nation. Why have they suddenly forgotten how to do this over the past year? Looks like their latest and greatest chief financial officer must have made changes for the worst, not the best. And didn't he just get another big raise along with President Panitz and other top administrators? GEEZ!!!!! These folks should only get raises if they are improving, NOT getting even worse! I mean, they were already screwing up before, so how much worse can they get?! I guess they'll just have to raise tuition on the poor students yet again to cover the costs of the IRS fines (and probably another set of raises the administrators will "reward" themselves with again for their "brilliant" - or more like moronic - performances)! If that doesn't bring in enough $ for fines and more undeserved administrator pay raises, maybe they will lay off some faculty and staff or cut the salaries of these employees to even less than what their K-12 counterparts make. Once again, we have to ask why the board of trustees keep letting the administrators get away with this crap?! Are they just as incompetent as the administrators they oversee, or are they involved in some sort of corruption scandal, too? I would think these folks should be able to advise the administrators since most of them are bank presidents, lawyers and financial geniuses. I read that rules might be changing the district mapping for the trustees so we may get to vote for all the positions sooner. If so, fellow taxpayers, let's make sure to replace the current trustees so maybe we'll finally get some real leadership that won't waste the tax dollars we have to give them. Maybe the new trustees will convince the president to "retire" even sooner than she plans. Better yet, maybe they'll clean the whole house of incompetent administrators. After all, the UCA mess kept going on even after they got a replacement for their scandalous President Hardin.
Seriously, how many more times are they going to screw up reporting to the IRS, wasting even more taxpayer $ and student tuition to pay these fines? This is a process they have been doing regularly since they have been in existence, as does every institution and business across the nation. Why have they suddenly forgotten how to do this over the past year? Looks like their latest and greatest chief financial officer must have made changes for the worst, not the best. And didn't he just get another big raise along with President Panitz and other top administrators? GEEZ!!!!! These folks should only get raises if they are improving, NOT getting even worse! I mean, ...>> Read the entire comment.

NIck Hillyard

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