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County trustee reports small audit discrepancies, rising occupancy-tax collections
Summary
County Trustee Kimberly Wiggins and auditor Caroline Vickrey reported quarterly hotel/motel occupancy-tax audit results, noting small overpayments and larger underpayments, an outstanding balance from one hotel and year-to-date increases in collections and short-term rental remittances.
County Trustee Kimberly Wiggins reported to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners on June 9 that quarterly hotel and motel occupancy-tax audits found small discrepancies but overall rising collections.
Wiggins said the audits are performed “per the private act of 1979” and described the county’s procedures, including matching occupancy-tax payments to sales tax reports and quarterly on-site testing. “The audit is performed by Stone, Rudolph and Henry,” she said, and introduced auditor Caroline Vickrey to summarize findings.
Vickrey said the firm selected 10 hotels for testing this quarter plus three carried forward and was able to test seven of the 13 scheduled. “For this quarter, we noted total overpayments of $142.15 and total underpayments of $4,414.35,” she said, and reported that three hotels were tested without exception. Wiggins told commissioners one hotel has an outstanding balance of $1,881 and that the county requested payment by June.
Wiggins also gave collection totals the board requested for context: occupancy-tax collections were reported as about $4,600,000 for 2022, $4,700,000 for 2023 and $5,100,000 for 2024; year-to-date collections for 2025 were reported at $1,900,000. She discussed short-term rentals separately, saying state changes that moved short-term rental revenue through the Department of Revenue have resulted in remittances to the county; she cited cumulative short-term rental remittances of about $438,005.18 over recent years and $218,000 so far in 2025.
Wiggins said common deficiencies observed in audits included calculation of penalty and interest, mismatches between occupancy-tax and sales/use forms, and issues with the 30-day occupant rule. She said Visit Clarksville Director Angie Bridal has begun meeting monthly with hoteliers to help address turnover-related reporting issues.
No formal action was taken; the report was received by the commission without discussion of further enforcement steps.
The trustee’s office and external auditor plan to continue routine quarter-by-quarter testing; commissioners did not request additional follow-up during the meeting.
