HIGHFILL — The town of Highfill is beginning to police for the proper collection of sales and use taxes on products delivered within the city.

Because Highfill does not have its own Post Office and zip code, getting its share of sales and use taxes has become a problem for the town - especially in regard to products and services delivered to businesses and residences in the town.

Highfill’s mayor, Chris Holland, told council members at the last week’smeeting that the town has been missing out on receiving tax money on items delivered to Highfill because companies and even some utilities don’t make the effort to determine whether or not a point of delivery is within Highfill’s city limits.

“We’re going to have to start policing to make sure we get our tax money on items delivered here,” Holland said, mentioning loads of building materials and supplies delivered to construction sites in which the sales taxes were mistakenly paid to another entity.

Arkansas law requires sales and use taxes to be collected based on the point of delivery rather than the point of origin. Thus, companies and utilities delivering goods and services within Highfill’s city limits are required to collect sales taxes for Highfill - taxes which are lower than most surrounding municipalities.

But because postal zip codes in Highfill are those of Gentry or Bentonville,some companies - and even utility companies - have mistakenly collected taxes for Gentry or Bentonville rather than for Highfill or have not collected any city taxes at all.

The town is potentially losing out on thousands of dollars, Holland said. And the only way to stop it is to check on goods and services delivered within the city to make sure Highfill sales taxes are being collected and not taxes for another city.

“It’s not going to happen,” Holland said when asked about getting a Highfill zip code. The Post Office is cutting back andclosing offices, he said. The best we can hope for is being able to use a Highfill town address with the Gentry zip code, he said.

There is a procedure for the town to collect taxes wrongly paid to another entity, Holland said. An audit can be requested from the State Attorney General, but the procedure can take about 18 months, he said.

Holland encouraged council members, as well as police and fire officials to check on goods they see delivered in Highfill to be sure Highfill its getting its fair share of the taxes collected.

News, Pages 1 on 10/21/2009