BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
_______________________________
In Re: ) FINDINGS
OF FACT,
: CONCLUSIONS
OF LAW,
XXXXX ) AND FINAL DECISION
:
: Appeal No.
90-1092
: Account
No. XXXXX
_____________________________
STATEMENT OF CASE
This
matter was scheduled to come before the Utah State Tax Commission for a formal
hearing on XXXXX, before Joseph G. Linford, Presiding Officer, for and on
behalf of the Commission. However,
Petitioner's owner, XXXXX, contacted the presiding officer earlier on the day
of the hearing and requested that the decision be made on the documents in the
file without the necessity of XXXXX appearance.
Based
upon the evidence in the file, the Tax Commission hereby makes its:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1.
The tax in question is sales tax.
2.
The periods in question are the third and fourth quarters of XXXXX, and the
first, second and third quarters of XXXXX.
3.
Before the periods in question, Petitioner had for some time employed the
services of an accountant who performed to Petitioner's satisfaction and who
ensured that Petitioner's taxes were remitted in a timely fashion.
4.
In XXXXX, this accountant sold his business to another accountant with whom
Petitioner was dissatisfied. Since that
time, Petitioner has been through several accountants, having various
difficulties with each one. Petitioner
states that the accountants would not follow up in the timely payment of Petitioner's
taxes and would not contact or communicate with Petitioner in order to take
care of the problems that were occurring.
5.
For the periods in question, Petitioner became concerned when the accountant
then in its employ did not communicate with Petitioner. When Petitioner contacted him, he informed
them that everything had been done for the XXXXX taxes and that he would also
take care of the taxes for XXXXX.
6.
Again there followed a period of noncommunication after which Petitioner attempted
to contact its accountant when Petitioner began to receive notices from the IRS
and the Tax Commission. After making
several attempts, Petitioner failed to contact this accountant, but then sent a
letter threatening legal action if the accountant did not follow up on
Petitioner's request. Approximately one week later Petitioner received in the
mail a box from the accountant which contained all of Petitioner's
records. Nothing had been done by the
accountant for the periods in question.
Since that time Petitioner has been working to get the account up to
date.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
The
Tax Commission is granted the authority to waive, reduce, or compromise
penalties and interest upon a showing of reasonable cause. (Utah Code Ann. §59-1-401(8).)
DECISION AND ORDER
Petitioner
is responsible for the actions of the accountants in its employ. The
difficulties enumerated by Petitioner would be reasonable cause, perhaps, for a
short period of time, but the difficulties in this case extend over a period of
more than a year. Petitioner is
responsible for following up in a timely manner with its accountant to ensure
that taxes are timely filed and paid.
Petitioner
admits that several times many months went by without Petitioner making the
effort to contact its accountant.
Petitioner was negligent in essentially leaving everything to its
accountant without any oversight or follow up on Petitioner's part until
matters began to develop into crisis proportions.
Based
upon the foregoing, the Tax Commission finds that sufficient cause has not been
shown which would justify a waiver of the penalties and interest associated
with the third and fourth quarters of XXXXX, and the first, second, and third
quarters of XXXXX. It is so ordered.
DATED
this 12th day of February, 1991.
BY ORDER OF THE UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION.
R. H. Hansen Roger
O. Tew
Chairman Commissioner
Joe B.
Pacheco G.
Blaine Davis
Commissioner Commissioner