| August 2006 |
download a pdf version |
|
GEAR Collection Program
Step by Step
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| 1. |
The
governing body of your county, hospital, special purpose
district, or other political subdivision must pass a
resolution authorizing the Association of Counties to act as
your claimant agent in the collection of delinquent debts.
Please fax or mail a copy of this resolution to SCAC. Also, you
must send a letter from your attorney addressing the claimant
agency’s eligibility to participate in these debt collection
programs |
| 2. |
Sign a
Memorandum of Understanding and Agreement between your
county, hospital, special purpose district, or other political
subdivision and the S.C. Association of Counties. |
| 3. |
Complete
the Participation Form for your county, hospital, special
purpose district, or other political subdivision. Complete the
Appointment of Hearing Officer form, which identifies the
Hearing Officer who will fulfill the duties outlined in
§12-56-65. All entities must submit these forms in order to
participate in the coming year. |
| 4. |
Begin gathering your list of delinquent debts
for the initial load: all debts submitted must include social
security numbers. The minimum debt total submitted should be
$300. Only new GEAR accounts should be included in the
initial load. Multiple debts may be submitted for the same
SSN but the DATE OF DEFAULT must be different. The Association
will provide each participant with a computer software program
for preparing its debt file, or the entity may submit data in an
ASCII format or Excel format as specified by SCAC.
Current participants in GEAR will receive
an inventory report in early September with a listing of
debts already in the system. We recommend you review this
listing and send SCAC an adjustment file to reduce or zero
anyone, as necessary. |
| 5. |
YOU NO LONGER NEED TO PROVIDE ENVELOPES TO
RENOTIFY DEBTORS ALREADY IN THE SYSTEM.
For new accounts entities must notify debtors
by letter of outstanding debts, using the language set forth in
the Setoff Debt Collection, as amended, Title 12, Chapter
56 of the South Carolina Code. The letter includes the
appeals process a debtor should follow to dispute a debt. .
SCAC also recommends adding
a sentence to the letter relating to administrative fees as
authorized by §12-56-60 and §12-56-63 of the Setoff Debt
Collection Act.
We recommend that these notices be mailed no
later than October 2 (earlier, if possible, to allow the debtors
the 30 days required by the statute to satisfy their debts, and
to allow entities time for administrative processing of these
debts). |
| 6. |
If a written protest is received
from a Debtor, you must complete and send the Notice of
Protest form to SCAC. All collection efforts will cease until
ample time for an appeal has been given. Please notify the
debtor of the date, time, and location of the informal hearing
using the address provided by the debtor in his notice of
protest. After hearing the protest, the Hearing Officer should
notify SCAC of the decision by sending the Certification Hearing
form. If the decision is appealed by the debtor, the Hearing
Officer should notify SCAC of any contest before the
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and the ALJ ruling. |
| 7. |
The debt file must be
submitted to the Association of Counties no later than November
10. If pulling data from more than one system, entities may
submit multiple files with different formats (SCAC Software,
ASCII, Excel). SCAC will compile all the files to prepare
software for the entity, as requested. A copy of the
completed certification form must be faxed or mailed to SCAC
before we can process the initial load. Files should be
submitted using electronic transfers through SCAC’s secure SSL
software. |
| 8. |
SCAC will send a Confirmation Report
to each entity showing the total number and dollar amount of
records in the initial load file, as well as
a listing of records with errors. Entities may review this
listing and provide SCAC an adjustment file with corrections
within two weeks after receiving the confirmation. SCAC will
not load your initial load until we have received verification
of the totals in the confirmation report. |
| 9. |
All adjustments to new accounts received
before December 8 are guaranteed to be included in the initial
load sent to DOR. If you have adjustments after December 8,
please continue to send them to us and we will attempt to
include them in the initial load before we send it to DOR. If we
cannot process these adjustments before December 15, we will
send the adjustments to DOR as soon as we receive confirmation
that DOR has loaded your data into their system.
Once the accounts are sent to DOR, any
payment received by the Entity must be forwarded
to the Department of Revenue. Checks
should be made payable to the S.C. Department of Revenue.
|
| 10. |
SCAC’s technical staff will
assist you with downloading the new year’s version of the
software beginning January 1, if you are using our software.
You will be able to download this version through SCAC’s secure
SSL web transfer. This will allow you to download the 2006
changes to the software on your system with the new accounts
submitted and the rollover accounts. To use the upgraded
software, you must have Internet access and have a currently
supported Microsoft Operating System (2000, XP, etc.)
|
| 11. |
Once the 2006 software is
installed, you may continue entering adjustments (or
Balance Updates) that zero accounts based on bankruptcies or
charitable reductions. Reductions based on payments should not
be included in an adjustment file since all payments should be
forwarded to DOR. These adjustments will be reflected in the
match reports. SCAC will send a confirmation report to you for
all adjustment files showing the total number and dollar amount
of adjustments received. If the amount differs from your
records, please contact SCAC immediately. |
| 12. |
After DOR loads the debts into
the GEAR system, the Department will generate a letter to
the debtor notifying that the debt has been submitted for
collection through GEAR. |
| 13. |
Payments not resolved within 45
days will move to a second stage. All accounts with levy
sources may be levied. DOR will mail updated balance notices
to debtors after each payment is posted with the Department. |
| 14. |
Upon receipt of the monthly GEAR
data, SCAC will process the data and send to each entity a
letter, checks or electronic deposit notification, detailed
report and file of transactions. With the debt software, you
will be able to download the data file and detailed report to
your computer through the Debt Software Transfer (SSL) Module.
The new Transfer module will download the information directly
to the debt folder allowing you to easily update your data file.
The Report Module allows you to print the detailed report. If
you are using Electronic Funds Transfer, you will receive an
automatic deposit to your bank account and an email notifying
you of the deposit. |
| 15. |
SCAC will provide entities
Address updates from the DOR tax return system in January.
We will send you data files and reports showing differences
between the DOR system and the SCAC system. Please update your
data as necessary. |
| All notices and forms mentioned
above should be sent to: Melinda Suddes, South Carolina
Association of Counties, P.O. Box 8207, Columbia, SC 29202-8207.
If you have questions, please contact Melinda at 1-800-922-6081
or email her at melinda@scac.state.sc.us. |
