BEFORE THE STATE TAX
COMMISSION OF UTAH
_____________________________________
XXXXX
Petitioner, :
v. : INFORMAL DECISION
COLLECTION
DIVISION OF THE : Appeal No. 87-1714
UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION, : Acct.
No. XXXXX
Respondent. :
_____________________________________
STATEMENT OF CASE
This
is an appeal to the Utah State Tax Commission from a decision of the Collection
Division of the Utah State Tax Commission (Respondent) to assess a late filing
penalty on sales and use tax account No. XXXXX for XXXXX and XXXXX. An informal hearing was held on XXXXX, in
the offices of the Utah State Tax Commission.
Jerry E. Larrabee, Tax Appeals Supervisor, represented the Tax
Commission. XXXXX represented the
Petitioner.
Petitioner
stated that she notified the Tax Commission on XXXXX, advising the Tax
Commission that XXXXX was no longer an active partner in XXXXX and gave the Tax
Commission the address for XXXXX.
Petitioner stated that XXXXX thereafter received a phone call from the
Tax Commission verifying the change of address. XXXXX was not aware of what forms needed to be filed or how often
they needed to be filed and was waiting for further correspondence from the Tax
Commission. The first notification that
XXXXX received was a notice of nonpayment of taxes. Petitioner requests a waiver of penalty for both filing periods
because no notification was received from the Tax Commission.
FINDINGS
The
Tax Commission finds that XXXXX had an affirmative duty to learn of the tax law
of the State of Utah and to timely file the returns for the periods in
question. If Petitioner did not
understand proper procedure, then Petitioner should have contacted the Tax
Commission, an accountant or a tax attorney.
Petitioner was negligent in failing to do so.
Petitioner
had the burden of proof to establish that Respondent assessed penalty and
interest in error. Petitioner failed to
meet this burden of proof.
DECISION AND ORDER
Based
upon the foregoing, it is the Decision and Order of the Utah State Tax
Commission that Petitioner's request for waiver of the penalties on sales and
use tax account No. XXXXX for XXXXX be denied.
The
assessment of penalty and interest by the Collection Division of the Utah State
Tax Commission is hereby affirmed.
DATED
this 15 day of January, 1988.
BY ORDER OF THE STATE TAX COMMISSION OF UTAH.
R. H. Hansen Roger
O. Tew
Chairman Commissioner
Joe B.
Pacheco G.
Blaine Davis
Commissioner Commissioner