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Audit finds no issues; board hears financial update, online-sales-tax gap
Summary
State auditors issued unmodified opinions and reported no findings for the 2025 fiscal year; district finance staff told the board that local property and car-tag revenues are healthy but online-sales-tax (SSUT) receipts are being lost—an estimated $5.5 million the district does not currently receive.
Taylor Carter, audit manager with the Alabama Examiners of Public Accounts, told the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education on April 27 that the audit of the district—or the year ending Sept. 30, 2025 produced unmodified opinions on both the financial statements and major federal programs and that "we reported no findings in our report." The audit covered the district's Title I grants, 21st Century Community Learning Centers and the child nutrition cluster; the audit report was released March 27, 2026 and is available on the examiners' website, Carter said.
The audit n independent, state-conducted financial-statement and single-audit review—ound the district—inancial statements "are presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles," Carter said. "We conducted our audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and the government auditing standards for the purpose of rendering an opinion on the financial statements and to determine whether the board complied with all applicable laws and regulations." Carter thanked central-office staff for their cooperation during the process.
The board then heard January financial statements and a management report from district finance staff. The presenter said property-tax and car-tag collections are tracking slightly above budget and that overall brick-and-mortar sales tax has been essentially flat over recent years. By contrast, the presenter reported a sizable shortfall tied to online-sales-tax (referred to in the meeting as SSUT), estimating about $5.5 million that the district is not currently receiving. "We get 0 from SSUT," the presenter said, then described litigation and potential legislative negotiations ongoing at state and national levels to address how online sales tax is shared with local governments.
The finance presenter put the SSUT figure in context with the district—udget outlook, noting that if some form of online-sales-tax allocation were realized it would materially increase receipts above the roughly $24 million expected from current local sources. The presenter cautioned that legislative or legal outcomes are uncertain and that any remedy would not necessarily restore the full estimated amount.
Board members praised the audit team's work and the central-office staff for the multi‑year record of no findings. The presenter closed the financial portion of the meeting by summarizing fund balances, special-revenue and capital-project funds, and noting anticipated bus purchases that will appear in upcoming financial statements.
What's next: the audit report is posted by the state examiners; the district will continue to monitor SSUT litigation and any state legislative action that could change local receipts.
