SNAFU OVER WAL-MART SALES TAXES PAID TO SCOTT COUNTY CREATES QUITE A FINANCIAL BIND

Scott County government has suddenly found itself in a predicament no Missouri county would envy: It must repay almost $400,000 in sales-tax revenue that should have gone to New Madrid County.

The Missouri Department of Revenue recently notified Scott County that Wal-Mart in Sikeston had been paying its sales taxes to Scott County for the past two years and seven months when it should have been paying them to New Madrid County. The confusion apparently developed from that fact that part of Sikeston is in Scott County and part is in New Madrid County.

Wal-Mart was notified that it had filed sales-tax collection forms for the wrong county, and the store has filed corrected returns with the Missouri Department of Revenue. Wal-Mart has amended sales-tax returns from February 1997 to July 1999 for taxes it collected totaling $396,466.61 for the period. The collections are based Scott County's half-cent sales tax.

The reimbursement to New Madrid County will put a hardship on Scott County, which for some time has been drawing on reserves to pay the bills, says the presiding commissioner.

To its favor, Scott County will be given some time to pay the taxes due New Madrid County. But the entire problem could have been avoided had someone caught the discrepancy early on, not almost three years later.

With the amount of sales taxes Wal-Mart collects, there were plenty of red flags.