Request By:
Mr. Vic Brizendine
Attorney at Law
418 Main Street
P. O. Box 47
Shelbyville, Kentucky 40065
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter to the Attorney General an opinion is requested concerning the proper procedure and legality of a county sheriff depositing tax money he collects in an interestbearing account at a local bank.
In KRS 134.320 the sheriff is required on the 10th day of each month, or more often as may be required by the Department of Revenue to prevent the sheriff from having funds in his possession in excess of the amount of his bond, to report under oath to the department the amount of all state taxes he has collected during the preceding month, or for such period as the department may require. The sheriff shall, at the time of making this report, pay to the department, for deposit with the state treasurer, all taxes he has collected for the state for the preceding month or period.
Under KRS 160.510 where the sheriff is the tax collector for a school district he is required before the 10th day of each month to pay to the depository of the district board of education the amount of school tax collected up to and including the last day of the preceding month.
Under KRS 134.300 the sheriff is required by the 10th day of each month, or more often as required by the fiscal court, to report to the fiscal court the amount of state and county tax he has collected for the month preceding, together with all fines, forfeitures, he has received or collected during the preceding month. The report must list the amount collected for belonging to each particular fund for which the revenue of money may be intended. At the time of making the report to the county court, the sheriff shall pay to the county treasurer, or other officer designated by the fiscal court, all funds belonging to the county that were collected by him during the period covered in the report.
From an examination of the above statutes it will be seen that a sheriff has until the 10th day of the month following the month in which he collects tax revenue for state, county, and school districts upon which to make reports and deposit money so collected in the previous month. For the period for which he collects the tax and before he makes the report and remits the money collected there is apparently no statutory bar to the sheriff depositing the money collected in an interest bearing account in a local bank. See, however, KRS 62.080 concerning liabilities for public funds placed in a depository. Also see OAG 70-68 which states generally that a sheriff may designate a depository subject to the approval of the fiscal court. The court cannot arbitrarily disapprove of a depository so designated by the sheriff.
We are unaware of any formal procedures necessary to make deposits of tax money collected by a sheriff in a bank.