1 / 20

Bureau of Accounts

Bureau of Accounts. (BO A ). Gerard D. Perry Director of Accounts. Anthony Rassias Deputy Director of Accounts. Training Objectives. To better understand the responsibilities of the Bureau of Accounts. To learn the basics of setting a tax rate.

zarek
Download Presentation

Bureau of Accounts

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Bureau of Accounts (BOA) Gerard D. Perry Director of Accounts Anthony Rassias Deputy Director of Accounts

  2. Training Objectives To better understand the responsibilities of the Bureau of Accounts To learn the basics of setting a tax rate To better understand free cash and the purpose of the Schedule A

  3. Five Major Functions • Approve tax rates • Certify free cash • Review Schedule A • Oversee debt issues • Review and approve independent CPA audits

  4. Field Staff Each community is assigned a BOA field representative BOA field staff are responsible for assisting municipal financial officers with state regulations and requirements,approval of tax rates, and certification of free cash They also provide instruction in soundmunicipal accounting practices

  5. Tax Rate Approval The tax rate, when applied to the assessed value of the taxpayer’s real and personal property, provides the single largest source of local revenue (for most communities) ` Tax Levy ___________ X 1,000 Tax Rate = Assessed Value However, communities are limited by the constraints of Proposition 2 1/2 in the amount they can levy in property taxes

  6. Tax Rate Approval BOA annually reviews all tax rate recapitulation (“recap”) submissions and approves the tax rate provided that the community-- has a balanced budget and is under the levy limit

  7. Tax Rate Approval Communities that issue semi-annual tax bills must submit their tax recap to BOA bySeptember 1 Quarterly communities must submit the recap by December 1

  8. Tax RateApproval Single v. Split Tax Rates Single tax rate-everyone in the community pays the same rate on their assessed property Example: $15/$1,000 $15/$1,000 Split tax rate-different tax rates apply depending on whether the property is classified as residential or commercial, industrial or personal Example: $15/$1,000 $23/$1,000

  9. Click here for answer Click here for answer Review Communities are limited by the constraints of ? in the amount they can levy in property taxes. Proposition 2 1/2 True or False? In communities that have a split tax rate, everyone pays the same rate on their assessed property. False

  10. Free Cash Certification Free cashis the amount of unrestricted funds available from operations that can be used as a funding source for appropriation after certification by the Director of Accounts Free cash is generated when actual revenue collections exceed the estimates used for budgeting and when actual expenditures and encumbrances are less than appropriations

  11. Free Cash Certification The basic free cash formula is: • undesignated fund balance • less accounts receivable, deficits not authorized by law • plus deferred revenue • equals free cash

  12. Free Cash Certification The Director of Accounts certifies free cash based on the community’s balance sheet for the fiscal year ended June 30 The balance sheet consists of assets, liabilities and fund balances It is prepared by the town accountant or city auditor with a target date for submission of September 15

  13. Requires a combined balance sheet as of June 30 for all funds Cash and receivables must be reconciled Deficits created by overdrawn accounts (excluding legal deficits) and illegal appropriations are then subtracted Free Cash Certification Review Process

  14. Click here for answer Click here for answer Review Free cash certification requires the reconciliation of ? and ?. cash and receivables The target date for submission of the balance sheet is ? September 15

  15. Audit Reviews BOA field representatives review the independent CPA audit reports and accompanying management letters for their communities The audits are used to tie to other BOA submissions made by the community to ensure consistent and factual recording of data

  16. Audit Reviews BOA reviews management letters to assess whether further assistance may be required by the community to resolve a potential or existing problem

  17. Schedule A Schedule Ais a statement of revenues, expenditures and other financing sources, uses, changes in fund balances and certain balance sheet account information prepared annually by the accountant or auditor at the end of the year

  18. Schedule A The BOA seeks to reconcile any year to year material variances in cash, fund balance, or other accounts reported on Schedule A BOA also reconciles year end cash and fund balance amounts from the Schedule A to the balance sheet amounts

  19. Click here for answer Click here for answer Review The Schedule A is prepared?by the accountant or auditor. annually BOA reviews ?to determine whether further assistance is needed to help a community resolve potential or existing problems. management letters

  20. Debt Section BOA’s debt section works with municipal treasurers and financial advisors on borrowing issues including State House notes, short term debt and bonds MENU

More Related