PURDY I
POWERS

COMPANY

July 22, 2015

Mr. Arnold Luce, Chair
Board of Selectmen
Town of Anson

Box 297

Anson, ME 04911-0297

Dear Mr. Luce:

In our letter to the Board of Selectmen dated June 9, 2015, we provided a summary of an
analysis of excise taxes processed by the Town of Anson?s tax collector for the year 2014, 2013

and 2012.

Subsequent to that analysis, the Board of Selectmen requested we continue the same process for
the year 2011. This letter serves as an update of our analysis to include 2011.

We used the same methodology for the 201 1 year as previously described. A reminder of the
process follows:

The ?rst step in the process of our analysis in each year was to add the excise amounts from all
registrations processed by the tax collector for Anson residents. The excise amounts were
obtained directly from the green copy of registrations processed and retained by the Town. The
registrations summarized were done on a weekly basis to coincide with reportng produced
through the Town?s motor vehicle computer software module. Any differences between
registrations processed and the reporting were noted. On occasion, Anson?s tax collector
processes registrations for residents of nearby towns. These registrations were identi?ed and

removed from our analysis.

The second step in the process was to obtain the detail of the transactions recorded to the Town?s
general ledger accounting system through the excise tax revenue account. Each of these recorded
transactions was traced to the deposits in the Town?s checking account. Through further analysis
it was noted that several deposits each year were for excise tax collected by other nearby towns
(for Anson residents) as needed in the absence of Anson?s tax collector. Any registrations
collected by other towns were not included in our analysis process discussed in the previous
paragraph. Deposits for excise tax collected by other towns have been excluded from amounts
recorded to the Town?s excise tax revenue account.

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Con?dence in knowing.

 

The following table summarizes our analysis:

 

2014* 2_12 
Excise tax collected per registrations
processed by Anson tax collector for
Anson residents 55 274,839 302,326 319,542 319,290
Excise tax deposited and recorded to
Anson accounting system as remitted by
tax collector 184,730 189,835 194,186 208,534

 

Difference 90,109 112,491 125,356 $110,756

2014 amounts shown here as part of the analysis, are for registrations processed only through September 18,
2014. Subsequent to this date, registrations were processed and deposited on a daily basis and coordinated with a
daily reconciliation.

The results of our updated analysis therefore indicates a shortfall between the amount of excise
tax collected through registrations processed and the amount of excise tax deposited to the
Town?s checking account totaling $438,712, for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, and 2014
through September 18, 2014.

We are available to the Board to discuss our analysis or provide further clari?cation as needed.
Sincerely,

?27m

Richard E. Emerson, Jr., CPA, CVA