Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Farmington Harvest Festival Committee issued its final report to the town council Jan. 19 along with a check for $7,752. The donation closed out the group’s bank account after three years and two September festivals, in 2012 and 2013.
The final donation culminated months of wrangling regarding tax filings. The group eventually hired Sally Bishop, CPA, who finalized the necessary tax filings for what was deemed an unincorporated “for profit” association.
The group’s treasurer, Tanya Thygeson, presented Farmington’s town clerk with copies of the tax filings along with the donation.
What Farmington does with the money is yet to be decided.
“I know some people want it used on the park, but that’s going to be up to the city council,” said Mayor James Woomack.
Now that the tax matter has been settled and final donation made, Harvest Festival Co-Chairman Mark Hellinger said it’s all been a learning experience.
“Very educational. We got the cart before the horse,” he said. “In never having done this before. Make sure you’ve got your plan ahead of time and things go better.”
With an eye on future events or other endeavors to support the town, Hellinger and four others who worked on the Harvest Festivals are now in the process of forming a non-profit group called the Farmington One Association.
“We’re still right at the point that we’re getting all the paperwork done,” said Thygeson. “We don’t want to move forward with it until the paperwork is in place.”
The process can take up to 18 months.
“It just depends on when the IRS gets to it,” she said.
The group has no set plans for any events or activities to come.
“But we’d have the organization set up, which would be perpetual,” Hellinger said.
The Harvest Festivals’ tax matter began last spring, after a question about donations to the town from the two festivals led to a problem regarding state and federal taxes.
Started by the committee of residents to hold an event and donate its proceeds for town improvements after several failed park levies, the first Harvest Festival gave $5,481 to the city in 2012. The lesser proceeds of 2013 were put in an account building toward a planned donation of a water feature for the city park.
In April 2013, town citizen Max Mohan asked at a city council meeting about the group’s mission statement, since no donation had been made to Farmington from the 2013 Festival. Woomack then referred the question to the Festival committee.
That led to the complicated legal matter.
While the festival was set up to be non-profit, the committee did not have an official 501c3 designation. In turn, in the months leading up to the first event in September 2012, the town of Farmington granted the committee permission to use their Unique Business Identifier (UBI) number when asked for one by people making donations (for individuals’ tax purposes).
Since the town would be receiving any and all of he profits from the event, organizers thought the arrangement was proper.
But the city kept no official records of this financial activity for the two festivals. Neither did the committee, which nonetheless kept detailed records of profits and expenses for the two, day-long events.
Eventually, according to tax laws, in order correct the situation, the town would have to go back and show profits and expenses in their 2012 and 2013 taxes for the Harvest Festival.
The city, and former mayor Ron Dugan, essentially said it is not their responsibility. While the city supported the Harvest Festivals, they were put on by the private group.
“It was unfortunate. It really was unfortunate,” said Thygeson. “There were hurt feelings, and rightfully so.”
As far as a future for the Farmington Harvest Festival, she indicated it’s time to wait.
“I just hear repeatedly, ‘When are we going to have the next one?'” said Thygeson. “At this point, we’re not 100 percent positive. It just all depends.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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