BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
________________________________
In Re: )
: INFORMAL
DECISION
XXXXX )
: Appeal No.
90-1093
:
: Account
No. XXXXX
____________________________________
STATEMENT OF CASE
This
matter came before the Utah State Tax Commission pursuant to the Administrative
Procedures Act and the rules of the Utah State Tax Commission for informal
proceedings. No hearing was requested,
therefore, this decision is based upon information contained in the Tax
Commission's file.
Petitioner
states that she did file an income tax return for the year XXXXX. Research into Tax Commission records
indicates that Petitioner filed a timely joint return with her then husband for
the year in question. At least two
amended returns were later filed after Petitioner's separation and divorce from
her husband. The first is undated,
signed by both Petitioner and her ex-husband, and received by the Tax
Commission on XXXXX. The second amended
return was signed only by Petitioner's former husband and is dated XXXXX. It appears, then, that Petitioner's former
husband filed the later amended return as "married filing
separate." Petitioner states she
had no knowledge of this later return.
She
consequently did not file any amended return for herself as "married
filing separate." Tax Commission records
indicate that an audit was later performed on Petitioner's account because of
this problem, and pursuant to that audit an additional tax amount, together
with penalty and interest, was imposed.
FINDINGS
Utah
Code Ann. §§59-1-401 and59-1-402 provide that penalties and interest shall be
assessed for the late filing and payment of 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 has been shown for waiver of the penalty in this case. The difficulties caused by the divorce and
Petitioner's former husband's last amended return, of which Petitioner had no
knowledge, do constitute sufficient reasonable cause for waiver of the
penalty. These were circumstances
caused by a person out of Petitioner's control. Interest, however, should not be waived because the state was
deprived of the use of the tax funds in question for a period of time, through
no fault of its own, and should be compensated for that loss of use.
DECISION AND ORDER
Based
upon the foregoing, it is the decision and order of the Utah State Tax
Commission that Petitioner's request for waiver of penalty is granted. Interest
shall be adjusted to account for the waiver of the penalty. It is so ordered.
DATED
this 13th day of November, 1990.
BY ORDER OF THE UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION.
ABSENT
R. H. Hansen Roger
O. Tew
Chairman Commissioner
Joe B.
Pacheco G.
Blaine Davis
Commissioner Commissioner