Levies in the MIPS Treasurer system are comprised of 3 things: Districts, Authorities, and Funds. Districts are made up of Authorities and Authorities are made up of Funds. All of which are unique to every tax year.
Almost every tax statement is tied to a particular taxing district. These districts hold the levy information required to calculate the appropriate tax for that particular property. This levy is the sum of all authority levies that comprise the district. It also holds information regarding Homestead Tax Credit, Real Estate Tax Credit, and Personal Tax Relief amounts. These amounts are used when calculating their respective breakdowns from the Revenues screen.
A taxing authority holds information as to which funds and their levies make up the authority levy. It also holds information such as if the authority has Airline/Carline and the Taxes Levied. The Taxes Levied field to be used for Prorate need to be populated manually from the values found on the Assessor's CTL. From the Authorities screen, it is easy to see what funds make up the given authority, and also what Districts the authority is a part of.
Funds are the root of all levies. Any fund can have a list of levies; one for each tax year. This specifies what the levy should be for a given year, and also allows for a commission rate to be entered for the county's commission. This records also holds the rate for Fine and Licenses and whether the fund should appear on the the Monthly School Report.
Levies can be setup for a new tax year in one of two ways. If the Assessor’s office uses the MIPS Assessment software you may be able to import your levies from their data. Conversely, if the assessor does not use the MIPS Assessment software, or the Treasurer would rather enter levies manually, the update levies process can copy the prior year levies forward. In both cases the levies can be modified afterward if required.
The easiest way to load levies for a new tax year is to import from the assessor. In order for this to work properly the assessor must be on the MIPS Assessment system, and they should use the same fund numbers, authority numbers, and tax districts that are used in the MIPS Treasurer system.
To import levies from the MIPS Assessment system, click on the Levies menu and then select the Update Levies option under the Tools section of the menu. When the Import from Assessor message is displayed, confirm by clicking the YES button.
A message will be displayed when the process has completed.
Click on the Levies menu and then choose Update Levies under the Tools section of the menu. If the system displays a message about Importing from the Assessor, click NO. A message will be displayed to confirm what year to roll the levies from. Click CONFIRM. A message will be displayed when the process has completed.
Now that all of the levies have been rolled forward the new Districts, Authorities and Funds can be found on their respective screens. The levies for all of the new fund years have been set to zero so that data will need to be entered.
To enter the levy for each fund, go to the Chart of Accounts menu and then click on the Funds menu item. Click the Find button to open a Fund to set the levy. Then, click the Edit button, type in the levy for the new tax year, and click the Save button to save the changes.
After all fund levies are set, it is recommended to run a Levy by Authority Listing from the Levies menu.
If any Authorities need to be adjusted, go to the Levies menu and click the Authorities menu item. Funds can be added or removed from a specific taxing authority from the Authorities screen as needed. The authority description is what will print on the tax statements, so this can be adjusted if needed at this time. Changing an Authority will automatically change every District in which the Authority resides.
After all Authorities are set up it is recommended to run a Levy by District Listing from the Levies menu. It is at this step that the treasurer’s system levies should be balanced to the assessor’s system levies.
