Adding New Tax Units

Last Revised:  October 8, 2007

To add a tax unit to the system, use the Jurisdiction screen in Tax Unit Maintenance.

1. From the Main Menu in the Tax Collection System, select Administration, then Tax Unit Maintenance. The Jurisdiction screen will appear.
2. Enter the Tax Unit, Year, and Unit Type.

3. Click the Tax Rates tab.
4. For units numbered less than 8000, enter the Rate Type, (e.g. MO, IS), Rate Seq., and Tax Rate.  Units numbered 8000 or greater are not required to have a tax rate.  All fees must be entered as a unit numbered 9000 or higher .  Court costs should be put in units 9000 - 9009 and  abstract fees should be placed in units 9010 - 9090.  Other fees can be in units higher than 9090.
5. If this jurisdiction does not allow exemptions, check the Disallow Exemptions box.
6. Click the Jurisdiction tab.
7. Enter the Name, Address, Phone, Fax, and E-mailif available.
8. Select the applicable fields in the Miscellaneous group box.
9. Provide the Fiscal Year Begin and End Dates.
10. Enter the Delinquency and Statement Dates.
11. Click the Discount Type drop-down list to select a discount, if applicable. No indicates no discount is given, Code B indicates discounts are given in October, November, and December; Code C indicates that discounts are given and begin the month after certified tax statements are mailed (for ex., November, December, and January).
12. Enter any additional information in the Statement Names boxes.
13. If you collect taxes for this jurisdiction, click the Compute Taxes checkbox.
14. The Refund Type field is used if this unit has not also been entered in the client preferences OVERPAY and ADJUSTMENT_REFUND_TU. Click the star next to the Refund Type field and select OV for Overpayment or RF for adjustment refund. This information will then be used when running the Refund Report with Interest (TN536).  This tells TaxLedge whether refunds in this unit are from overpayments or adjustments.

Note: When running the TC536, you will need to enter T in the Refund Type and the tax unit number in the Jurisdiction field.

15. If this unit allows freezes (frozen levies), check the Grant Tax Ceiling checkbox.

Note: (optional) Click the Exemption tab (if you are not already there), then click the star buttons in the Exemption Codes area to select DRH and O65 if the tax unit accepts frozen levies for this year. Most units will want both of these boxes checked. At this time levy is not calculated based on what is in these fields.If this jurisdiction assesses rendition penalties, enter the rendition tax unit numbers in the Rendition Penalty, Additional Penalty, and Fraud Penalty fields.  These units must have already been created in order for rendition penalties to be calculated.

16. If this jurisdiction is a rendition penalty unit, enter the rendition percentage in the Rendition % field; the percentage cannot be more than 1.0, which is 100%.  Standard percentages are .10 (10%), .25 (25%), and .50 (50%).
17. The Exemption Amounts area is view only. Click the Exemption tab, then enter the Mandated and Optional Exemption Amounts.

Note:  If there is a local option on a school district, the homestead exemption is calculate on the local option percentage plus the mandated amount.  All tax units having homesteads with local options have a $5,000 minimum local option homestead exemption value.

For certain units (e.g., Road and Bridge) When an Over-65 exemption is added to a homestead, then the 20% local homestead option applies, but the mandated state homestead value does not apply.

18. For each of the other exemptions granted by the tax unit, click the star buttons in the Exemption Codes area to select the exemption.

Note: ACT recommends that you do this, as ACT is implementing code changes to link levy changes to the exemptions listed in this screen.

19. Click theAttorney Information tab.If this unit allows freeport exemptions, check the Freeport Allowed box.  These exemptions cannot be calculated if this box is not checked.
20. Click the Star button next to the Attorney ID field, select the tax unit's delinquent attorney in the Attorney Description window, then click OK.  The Attorney checkbox will be checked and the 33.07 33.08, 33.11% fields will auto-fill with .20%.  The Name/Address lines at the bottom of the screen will also be filled.

Note:  You must add each attorney as a separate tax unit in this screen in order to have them display in this window.  Assign them a tax unit number and enter ATTORNEY as the Unit Type.   To add other miscellaneous attorney fees, you will also need to create a separate tax unit for that attorney or specific fee.

21. If the delinquent contract for this jurisdiction requires .15 percent, change the percentage in the 33.07 33.08, 33.11% field.

Note: If the account is flagged with an M in the Penalty Control field of the Receivable screen, attorney fees of 15% will be charged, regardless of what the Attorney percentage is in the Tax Unit Maintenance screen.

21. If this jurisdiction will collect 33.48 fees, check the 33.48% field.
22. If appropriate, check the boxes for Collect 33.11, Attorney Fee Passed, and/or Attorney Fee Passed Bankruptcy.
23. Click F10 (Save) to save changes.