EBR Performs Motor Vehicle Tax Audit

 Submitted by David Barrow

Central, LA – The City-Parish Finance Department/Revenue Auditing Division has completed the Motor Vehicle Tax Distribution audit for the period January through December 2008.  The results indicate that some errors still exist in the distribution of Motor Vehicle Tax collected by the state of Louisiana and remitted to the jurisdictions within East Baton Rouge Parish.  The City-Parish Revenue Auditing Division reviewed thousands of motor vehicle sales transactions reported by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety to determine if sales taxes were properly submitted to each jurisdiction in the parish.

            The exceptions were voluminous, individually analyzed and summarized.  It was determined that in 2008, the city of Central did not receive $108,296 in Motor Vehicle Tax collections for vehicles sold to their residents, and therefore, the city of Central is due additional tax receipts of this amount.  This amount will be transferred to the city of Central before the end of this year.  The Revenue Auditing Division will begin working on the 2009 audit soon.

            It was determined that out of this $108,296, the sum of $88,884 was incorrectly paid to the parish of East Baton Rouge instead of Central.   $14,332 was incorrectly paid to Baker, and $5,080 was paid to Zachary instead of Central.

            The City-Parish Revenue Auditing Division will continue audit work on these State of Louisiana Motor Vehicle Tax remittances and work toward monitoring and adjusting on a quarterly basis in the future.   Part of the exceptions is due to on the ongoing zip code issue in Central.  All Central residents are asked to use “Central, LA” as their address when purchasing a vehicle to make sure that Central receives the proper sales tax on the transaction and to reduce the audit time in reviewing these transactions.

 Each jurisdiction in the parish is assigned a unique domicile code by the Dept. of Public Safety (DPS) for reporting sales taxes.  For example, if you use “Baker, LA”, the DPS may code that transaction and remit sales taxes to Baker instead of Central.  If you use “Greenwell Springs, LA”, the DPS may code that transaction and remit the taxes to East Baton Rouge Parish.  So, please make sure that you use “Central, LA” as your address so that the transaction is coded correctly.

            The city of Central appreciates the hard work and effort displayed by the City-Parish Finance Department in this audit.  A similar audit completed last year for the years 2006 and 2007 showed that Central did not receive $60,660 in motor vehicle taxes.  This amount was given to the city of Central after the final audit was completed.