89-1053 - Sales

BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION

_____________________________________

XXXXX

Petitioner, :

v. : INFORMAL DECISION

: Appeal No. 89-1053

COLLECTION DIVISION OF THE :

UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION, :

: Acct No. XXXXX

Respondent. :

_____________________________________

STATEMENT OF CASE

This is an appeal to the Utah State Tax Commission requesting waiver of the penalty and interest assessment on Petitioner's late payment of sales taxes. Pursuant to Utah Code Ann. §63-46b-5(1)(b,j) (1986 Rep., 1988 Supp.) no hearing was held. Petitioner's file served as the evidentiary base for this decision.

Petitioner is on annual filing status and filed her XXXXX sales tax return with the Commission in early XXXXX. Petitioner was therefore assessed penalties and interest for the late filing and payment of the sales tax.

Petitioner was erroneously under the impression that her tax year would be from XXXXX to XXXXX every year, that date being the date she applied for her sales tax license. She alleges she did not receive any information from the Tax Commission to indicate that she should file at an earlier date.

Upon receiving the Notice and Demand for payment of taxes which assessed a $$$$$ penalty and $$$$$ interest, Petitioner paid the interest and applied for a waiver of penalty. Petitioner was informed that she should not pay the penalty but should wait for a decision to be reached.

Petitioner later received another Notice and Demand for payment of taxes now assessing a $$$$$ penalty and $$$$$ interest. Petitioner then contacted the Tax Commission to resolve the problem. She was told that she should not have received the second notice and that a hold code would be placed upon her account, and that she should have received information from the Commission stating when her sales tax was due, but had not received that information. Up until this time Petitioner did not know the due date for the filing of the return.

Petitioner is appealing the assessment of the penalty and interest in question.

FINDINGS

Utah Code Ann. §§59-1-401,59-1-402, 59-1-107(19),59-12-110, and59-12-111 (1987 Rep., 1989 Supp.) provide for the assessment of penalties and interest upon the late filing of returns or the late payment of taxes. Section 59-1-401(8) provides that the Commission upon reasonable cause shown may waive or reduce any of the penalties or interest imposed under the above statutes. Such reasonable cause for waiver of a portion of the penalty has not been shown in this case.

Although Petitioner operated under the assumption that taxes would not be due until XXXXX, such error is not sufficient cause for the waiver of penalty and interest. It is the responsibility of the taxpayer to be aware of filing dates and to act accordingly. However, reasonable cause has been shown for the waiver of the additional penalty amount that was incurred after Petitioner filed her waiver request.

DECISION AND ORDER

Based on the foregoing facts, it is the decision and order of the Utah State Tax Commission that Petitioner's request for waiver of penalty and interest is hereby denied on the amounts accrued before Petitioner filed her waiver request, and is granted on any additional penalty incurred thereafter. The penalty is reduced to $$$$$ and interest is to be adjusted.

DATED this 18th day of January, 1990.

BY ORDER OF THE UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION.

FOR THE COMMISSION

G. Blaine Davis

Commissioner