BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
_____________________________________
XXXXX,
Petitioner, :
v. : INFORMAL DECISION
: Appeal No.
89-2304
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 a penalty
and interest assessment on Petitioner's withholding tax return for XXXXX. Pursuant to Utah Code Ann. §63-46b-5(1)(b,j)
no hearing was held. A review of Petitioner's
file served as the evidentiary basis for this decision.
Petitioner's
payroll clerk was responsible for the tax filing for the period in
question. This person was on vacation
from work in XXXXX and then was sick and off work for the first part of the
following October. Because of this,
according to Petitioner, Petitioner's check for its monthly filing of
withholding taxes for October was not processed and paid in a timely manner.
Petitioner states that this was merely human error on the part of the payroll
clerk and was not the result of any malicious intent and that as soon as the
error was discovered, Petitioner's payroll clerk immediately sent in the total
amount of tax plus one half of the December payment in advance. The return was received by the Tax
Commission on XXXXX, approximately three weeks after the XXXXX deadline.
The
above circumstances led to the assessment of a $$$$$ penalty and interest in
the amount of $$$$$ against Petitioner.
Upon Petitioner's request for waiver of penalties and interest, the
penalty was reduced by the Commission to $$$$$ by letter dated XXXXX. Petitioner now requests a waiver of the
remaining interest and penalty.
FINDINGS
Utah
Code Ann. §§59-1-401 and59-1-402 provide that penalties and interest shall be
imposed for the late payment and filing of withholding taxes. Utah Code Ann.
§59-1-401(8) provides that upon reasonable cause shown, the Tax Commission may
waive or reduce penalties and interest assessed under the above statutes.
Such
reasonable cause for the waiver of the remaining penalty and interest has not
been shown in this case. Consideration
was already given to the lack of malicious intent on the part of the
Petitioner, and Petitioner's good faith efforts to rectify the situation, in
the reduction of the penalty by the Commission by the letter dated XXXXX. Human error or negligence is not sufficient
reasonable cause for the waiver of the remaining portions of the penalties and
interest assessed. In addition,
although Petitioner's payroll clerk was ill in October, she still had the
entire month of November to pay the tax before the deadline of XXXXX.
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 be
denied.
DATED
this 14th day of March, 1990.
BY ORDER OF THE UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION.
FOR THE COMMISSION
G. Blaine
Davis
Commissioner