BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
_____________________________________
XXXXX, )
Petitioner, ) FINDINGS OF FACT,
) CONCLUSIONS
OF LAW,
v. ) FINAL DECISION
)
)
) Appeal No.
89-0509
COLLECTION
DIVISION OF THE )
STATE TAX
COMMISSION OF UTAH, )
) Acct No.
XXXXX
Respondent. )
_____________________________________
This
matter came before the Utah State Tax Commission pursuant to the Utah Rules of
Administrative Procedure and the Administrative Procedures Act for formal
adjudicative proceedings on XXXXX.
Joseph G. Linford, Presiding Officer, was the Hearing Officer at the
hearing. Petitioner was represented by
XXXXX, President of XXXXX. No one
appeared to represent Respondent.
Based
upon the recommendation of the Presiding Officer and upon the evidence and
arguments in the file and presented at the hearing, the Tax Commission makes
its:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. The tax in question is withholding tax.
2. The period in question is January through
March of XXXXX.
3. Petitioner, opened for business on
XXXXX. XXXXX is the parent company of
Petitioner and as such XXXXX does all of Petitioner's accounting and did so at
the time in question.
4. Petitioner applied for a withholding account
number in XXXXX and then XXXXX took over on all of the matters involved in this
appeal from that point on.
5. Prior to the deadline for filing withholding
returns on XXXXX, Petitioner was not notified by the Tax Commission that an
account number had been assigned. The
Petitioner was also not sent the appropriate forms to file. Petitioner had relied on XXXXX to take care
of these things, but discovered that XXXXX was not doing so. The Petitioner subsequently made numerous
attempts by telephone to obtain this information and the forms from the Tax
Commission but was unsuccessful.
6. On XXXXX, having still not received anything
from the Tax Commission, Petitioner requested blank returns. Upon receiving those returns, Petitioner
filed returns for both the first and second quarters of XXXXX.
7. Petitioner now seeks a waiver of penalty and
interest assessed for the late filing of the first quarter return.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. Utah Code Ann. §§59-1-401 and59-1-402 (1987
Rep., 1989 Supp.) provide that penalties and interest shall be assessed on the
late payment of taxes and on the late filing of tax returns.
2. Utah Code Ann. §59-1-401(8) (1987 Rep., 1989
Supp.) provides that, upon reasonable cause shown, the Tax Commission may waive
or reduce penalties and interest imposed under the above statutes.
3. Such reasonable cause has been shown by
Petitioner, in view of the fact that the late filing was not intentionally
caused by Petitioner, but was largely caused by circumstances and people mostly
beyond Petitioner's control.
FINAL DECISION
Since
Petitioner's tardiness in filing its returns for the first quarter of XXXXX was
not the fault of the Petitioner, it is the decision of the Utah State Tax
Commission that the Petitioner's request for the waiver of the penalty amount
of $100 is granted and that the Petitioner's request for a waiver of the
interest amount of $5.99 is denied. It
is so ordered.
DATED
this 1ST day of SEPTEMBER, 1989.
BY ORDER OF THE UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION.
R. H. Hansen Roger
O. Tew
Chairman Commissioner
Joe
B.Pacheco G.
Blaine Davis
Commissioner Commissioner