Hanover School District gives update on failure to submit employee tax forms for multiple years

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - An El Paso County school district is facing heat from its own employees after staffers at Hanover School District failed to submit tax withholding forms for years.

Those staff members tell KRDO their 2022 tax refunds are now being withheld by the IRS, due to the violation.

One Tuesday evening, the Hanover Board of Education gave a very brief update on its ongoing tax audit.

"By the end of this week, all IRS files and forms will be completed, which will allow tax returns, anything held on tax returns to move forward," explained Superintendent Paul Calvert.

He said it's the result of work done by an outside Certified Public Accountant over the past few days in the district.

"All 941's are in progress, have been submitted, or they will be by the end of the week," added Calvert.

"All 941's are in progress, have been submitted or they will be by the end of the week." added Calvert.

Staffers within the district told KRDO that earlier this year, many of them were contacted by the Internal Revenue Service, informing them that their 2022 tax refunds would be held until further notice.

That's when they learned that 941 and W-2 forms had not been submitted for years -- skipping 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

In a board meeting on September 20, Board Treasurer Ed Sweazy told staff members that he had not learned of the tax issues until a few weeks ago.

However, as far back as April, a school staffer raised concerns over the district's tax problems at a board meeting.

"This is a personal statement addressing the frustration and fatigue many of us are experiencing due to the school's handling of our federal tax situation." said Abigail Engle, an employee at an elementary school in the district.

It's a complaint that the Hanover board acknowledged at the time.

"Thank you, ma'am. I can assure you we're aware of that and are looking into it," one board member responded.

Superintendent Calvert told KRDO after the meeting's executive session that the district was still looking into submitting forms for employees in the year 2018, as he says the data stops at the year 2019.

He said they'll likely have to make a separate effort to address those tax forms.

Calvert added that they would further investigate any employee refunds not received, or expenses they incurred from the district's mishandling of the tax forms, such as back taxes or other costs from improperly reported information.