BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
_____________________________________
XXXXX
Petitioner, : FINDINGS OF FACT,
: CONCLUSIONS
OF LAW
v. : AND FINAL DECISION
: Appeal No.
88-2569
COLLECTION
DIVISION OF THE :
UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION, : Account
No. XXXXX
Respondent. :
_____________________________________
STATEMENT OF CASE
This
matter came before the Utah State Tax Commission pursuant to the Utah
Administrative Procedures Act for a formal hearing on XXXXX, before Joseph G.
Linford, Presiding Officer. Petitioner
was represented by XXXXX. No one
representing Respondent appeared.
After
reviewing the evidence and arguments of the parties in the record and the
recommendation of the presiding officer, the Tax Commission hereby makes its:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. The tax in question is sales tax.
2. The period in question is all four quarters
of XXXXX.
3. During this period, Petitioner hired
additional employees to help with an increasing workload. Petitioner subsequently discovered that some
of these employees were stealing large amounts of money from Petitioner.
4. The amount of money stolen was in the
thousands of dollars and was sufficient to render it virtually impossible,
according to Petitioner, for Petitioner to pay many of its obligations, one of
which was the tax in question.
5. Because of these circumstances which were
beyond Petitioner's control, Petitioner asserts that it was unable to pay the
taxes concerned and therefore requests a waiver of the penalty and interest.
6. Although this case deals with sales and use
tax, Petitioner was also assessed penalties and interest for late payment and
filing of withholding tax which Petitioner also appealed. The final decision on that case, dated
XXXXX, waived the penalties assessed but not the interest under the same
circumstances as this case.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. Utah Code Ann. §§59-1-401 and59-1-402
provide that penalties and interest shall be assessed for the late filing of
sales taxes.
2. Utah Code Ann. §59-1-401(8) provides that
the Commission, may upon reasonable cause shown, waive or reduce the penalties
assessed under the above statutes.
3. Such reasonable cause has been shown in this
case. The circumstances which created
the inability of Petitioner to pay the tax in question were beyond the
Petitioner's control. Reasonable cause
for waiver of interest has not been shown because the State was deprived of the
use of these taxes and should be compensated for that loss.
DECISION AND ORDER
Based
on the foregoing, it is the decision and order of the Utah State Tax Commission
that all penalty amounts be waived.
Interest amounts are not waived, but are hereby ordered to be
recalculated to include considerations for the waiver of the penalty.
DATED
this 17 day of May, 199O.
BY ORDER OF THE UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION.
R. H. Hansen Roger
O. Tew
Chairman Commissioner
Joe B.
Pacheco G.
Blaine Davis
Commissioner Commissioner