BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
_____________________________________
XXXXX
Petitioner, : FINDINGS OF FACT,
v. : CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
: AND FINAL
DECISION
AUDITING
DIVISION OF THE :
UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION : Appeal
No. 87-2320
Respondent. :
_____________________________________
STATEMENT OF CASE
This
matter came before the Utah State Tax Commission for a telephone hearing
pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act XXXXX before Joseph G. Linford,
Presiding Officer. The Petitioner
appeared and was also represented by XXXXX.
Respondent was represented by XXXXX, Assistant Utah Attorney General and
by XXXXX of the Auditing Division of the Utah State Tax Commission. In this appeal, Petitioner was originally
contesting the assessment of the tax, but during hearing Petitioner withdrew
his challenge to the tax Relief and petitioned only for waiver of certain
penalty and interest amounts. After
reviewing the evidence and arguments of the parties and the recommendation of
the Presiding Officer, the Tax Commission hereby makes its:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1.
The tax in question is income tax.
2.
The period in question in the tax year XXXXX.
3.
Petitioner filed his income tax return for the calendar year XXXXX on
XXXXX. On this return, Petitioner
carried forward a XXXXX net operating loss to offset his net operating gain in
XXXXX. The affect of this was that
according to his return there were no taxes due for the year XXXXX. Thus, Petitioner did not at that time pay
any tax.
4.
Respondent subsequently sent a statutory notice of deficiency to Petitioner
which disallowed this net operating loss carryover. On XXXXX, Petitioner filed a Petition for Redetermination contending
that he should be allowed to carry over the XXXXX net operating loss to XXXXX.
5.
Petitioner now concedes that he in fact cannot be allowed such a carryover and
therefore petitions for a waiver of the $50 penalty assessed for the late
payment of the taxes in question and for the interest amounts assessed
following Petitioner's filing for redetermination. Petitioner does not contest the $50 penalty assessed for his late
filing of his return. Petitioner feels
also that he is entitled to a waiver of the $50 late payment penalty because he
did not pay that tax on the good faith assumption that there was no tax due. He
believes he should be granted the waiver of interest assessed after he filed
his Petition for Redetermination on the grounds that he alleges the Tax
Commission took an inordinate amount of time to respond to that petition.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1.
Utah Code Ann. §§59-1-401,59-1-402,59-12-107(19),59-12-110 and59-12-111 provide
that penalties and interest shall be assessed for the late payment of taxes and
the late filing of tax returns.
2.
Utah Code Ann. §59-1-401(8) provides that the Tax Commission may on reasonable
cause shown waive a portion or all of the penalties and interest assessed under
the above statutes.
3.
Such reasonable cause has not been shown for waiver of the penalty. The mere
fact that the Petitioner operated under a good faith assumption that no tax
would be due is not sufficient to waive the penalty for non-payment of that tax
because mere negligence on the fault of the taxpayer is not sufficient
reasonable cause for a waiver of penalty.
Reasonable cause for waiver of the interest amounts that accrued after
Petitioner paid the taxes in question has been shown.
DECISION AND ORDER
Based
on the foregoing, it is the decision and order of the Utah State Tax Commission
that the request of Petitioner for waiver of penalties be denied. Interest that
accrued after the date Petitioner paid the taxes in question is waived.
DATED
this 27 day of February, 1990.
BY ORDER OF THE UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION.
R. H. Hansen Roger
O. Tew
Chairman Commissioner
Joe B.
Pacheco G.
Blaine Davis
Commissioner Commissioner
^^