BEFORE THE STATE TAX
COMMISSION OF UTAH
_____________________________________
XXXXX
Petitioner, :
v. : INFORMAL DECISION
COLLECTION
DIVISION OF THE : Appeal No. 88-0050
UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION, : Acct.
No. XXXXX
Respondent. :
_____________________________________
STATEMENT OF CASE
This
is an appeal to the Utah State Tax Commission for a reconsideration of a
Commission decision denying a request for waiver of a penalty assessment of
Petitioners' XXXXX income tax return.
Pursuant to Utah Code Ann. §63-46b-5(1)(b), no hearing was held. A review of Petitioners' file served as the
evidentiary basis for this decision.
Petitioners,
XXXXX, failed to file a timely XXXXX income tax return and were assessed a late
filing penalty. The Petitioners assert
that, after contacting the Commission regarding their account, they were told
that a late filing penalty would be waived if they remitted the tax due.
FINDINGS
Utah
Code Ann. §59-1-401(1)(b) provides that a penalty of the greater of $$$$$ or
ten percent of the tax due shall be assessed for failure to file a timely tax
due or no tax due return. Petitioners'
failure to file a timely return subjected them to liability for the late filing
penalty. Utah Code Ann. §59-1-401(8)
authorizes the Commission to waive such penalties upon a showing of reasonable
cause. Although receiving erroneous
information from the Commission can be considered reasonable cause if reliance
on that information causes the non-compliance, in Petitioners' case, the
non-compliance occurred before the information was received. Petitioners should have known that failure
to file a timely return would subject them to liability for a late filing
penalty.
DECISION AND ORDER
Based
on the foregoing facts, it is the decision and order of the Commission that the
request for a waiver of penalty be denied.
DATED
this 27 day of September, 1988.
BY ORDER OF THE STATE TAX COMMISSION OF UTAH.
FOR THE COMMISSION
G. Blaine
Davis
Commissioner