Audit Objective 

Determine whether the Town of Middlebury (Town) Tax Collector remitted all collections as required by New York State Town Law (Town Law).

Key Findings 

The Tax Collector did not remit collections to the Town Supervisor (Supervisor) and Wyoming County (County) Treasurer within the timeframes established by Town Law Section 35.As a result, funds were not provided to finance Town and County operations in a timely manner.

• The Tax Collector did not remit taxes totaling approximately $912,000 to the Supervisor at least weekly as required by Town Law.
• The Tax Collector made one payment totaling approximately $1.1 million to the County Treasurer in April 2024, instead of paying three separate required payments totaling $656,657 in February, $327,001 in March and $92,168 in April.
• The Board did not audit the Tax Collector’s records as required and, as a result, did not know that the Tax Collector was incorrectly remitting collections to the Supervisor and County Treasurer.

Key Recommendations 

The audit report includes three recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Town’s tax collection practices.

Town officials agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.