El Paso Co. Finds Missing Sales Tax Revenue

El Paso County officials said they are finding missing sales tax revenue and getting back money that the county has been owed for years.

Currently, vendors pay the 1 percent county sales tax to the state of Colorado and then the state pays El Paso County every month.

Nicola Sapp, the county’s budget officer, said the county has suspected that it was being shorted for years.

The problem was the county had no point of comparison, but that changed in 2004 when voters approved a 1 percent transportation tax.

Sapp said county officials could see there was a discrepancy between the transportation tax revenue and the county sales tax revenue, so county officials hired an investigator to find the missing money.

She said the county initially estimated that it was shorted $6 million.

After their investigation, Sapp said $4 million of that was accounted for because of reporting errors.

The county has collected about $1.3 million. Sapp said El Paso County officials have asked the state for more audits concerning about $830,000.

She said the county has collected about 30 to 40 percent of the amount it has asked to be audited. That means the county may recover up to $1.6 million.

Sapp said that the county plans to share what it has found out with other counties.

The state launched a new online system for reporting sales tax in August, so county officials said they are hopeful there will be fewer mistakes.