COUNTYWIDE : Cities Hire Firm to Find Tax Revenues
Financially pinched cities in Ventura County are trying to squeeze new revenue out of the state by auditing sales tax figures.
At least five cities have hired a Westlake Village accounting firm to ensure that they are getting back one cent out of every 7.25 cents of sales tax generated in their jurisdictions.
“Essentially our revenue is flat,” Norman Wilkinson, Santa Paula’s director of public works, said Monday after the City Council voted to join Camarillo, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Ventura in the revenue-enhancing tactic. “And this is one of the ways of trying every legitimate avenue we have.”
Municipal Resource Consultants Inc. has been hired on a contingency basis to find errors in tax reporting for the cities. The errors occur when companies doing business in more than one city attribute point-of-sales to the home office, effectively depriving cities of money that they would normally get.
The bounty-hunting firm will be paid 25% of all money recovered. So far, the consultants have recovered money for at least 25 cities in California, including more than $12 million for the city of San Jose.
In Santa Paula, the company expects to get back $40,000 to $60,000 a year.
Simi Valley on Monday also joined the trend, voting to hire Hinderliter, de Llamas & Associates of Glendora to audit its taxes.
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