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County designates staff and commissioners to tax reporting portals after audit of authorizations
Summary
Finance staff walked the board through federal and state tax portals used for payroll and reporting and the board designated designees for those portals while discussing security and background checks for access.
Custer County finance staff on Feb. 13 briefed the Board of County Commissioners on the county’s electronic tax-payment and reporting portals and the need to formalize who has credentialed access to each system.
Vernon Roth, the county’s director of finance, described the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) and the IRS filing portals and explained that some systems currently require credentials tied to an individual’s Social Security number. “EFTPS is where we basically make all of our tax payments,” Roth said, adding that the Electronic Filing (e-file) system for IRS returns requires two authenticated users.
Roth proposed that finance staff hold the primary credentials for the EFTPS and for systems tied directly to the county’s bank accounts, that an authenticated commissioner be configured where a system requires two users, and that Robert Smith be designated for unemployment insurance portals. He also said the county will pursue asking federal authorities to allow entity-level credentials rather than credentials tied to an individual Social Security number.
Commissioners and staff discussed the sensitivity of personally identifying information: Roth noted that anyone with access to the portals must be able to handle Social Security numbers and other PII and recommended limiting that access to a small set of vetted finance and HR staff. Resident Kathy Griffin suggested annual background checks for people who have access to employees’ Social Security numbers.
The board voted to designate Vernon Roth as the county’s primary tax-reporting and payment-portal designee, Commissioner Lucas as the backup on systems requiring two authenticated users, and Robert Smith as the county’s designee for BSO/Social Security business services and the Colorado Department of Labor myUI portal. The motion passed and was recorded by the clerk.
The county will codify the credentialing and backup process in internal procedures and to return to the board if revisions are needed. Commissioners directed staff to reduce single-person points of failure, to document credentialing steps and to consider requiring annual background checks for portal users.
Ending Finance staff said they would document workflows, provide training for backups and explore whether federal rules can be changed to allow use of an EIN instead of an employee Social Security number for these portals.
