BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
_____________________________________
In Re: )
: ORDER
XXXXX, ) Appeal Nos. 90-1418
: and
90-1419
_____________________________________
STATEMENT OF CASE
This
matter came before the Utah State Tax Commission upon a Petition for
Reconsideration, dated XXXXX, filed by the Petitioner as a result of the
Commission's final decision, dated XXXXX.
FINDINGS
1. Utah Administrative Rule R861-1A-5(P)
provides that a Petition for Reconsideration "will allege as grounds for
reconsideration either a mistake in law or fact, or the discovery of new
evidence." Under this rule, the
Tax Commission may exercise its discretion in granting or denying a Petition
for Reconsideration.
2. Utah Code Ann. §59-1-401(8) states
"Upon making a record of its actions, and upon reasonable cause shown, the
Commission may waive, reduce, or compromise any of the penalties or interest imposed
under this part." [Emphasis
added.]
The
statute which allows for a waiver of penalties or interest is permissive rather
than mandatory. That is, even upon a
showing of reasonable cause, the Commission, in its discretion, may or may not
find that the waiver of penalties or interest is appropriate in a given
case. However, the Commission did not
find reasonable cause in this case. The
Petitioner had previously properly and timely filed the sales tax prepayment
and must have been well aware of the due date of the return regardless of
whether or not it received a return form.
Therefore, if it really did not receive a form, Petitioner could have
taken some action prior to XXXXX days later to either comply with the payment
requirements or to request an extension of time in which a form could have been
obtained. This constitutes an implicit
finding that the Petitioner does not maintain good business procedures and
practices with respect to its sales tax liabilities.
4. In the present case the Commission did not
adopt an "extraordinary circumstances" standard in arriving at its
decision. The standard utilized by the
Commission was one of negligence versus reasonable cause. While the negligence was by employees of
Petitioner, all acts of negligence by a company are performed by its employees
or agents. The Commission finds that
from the circumstances of the two cases, waiver of the penalties was not
appropriate.
DECISION AND ORDER
Based
upon the foregoing, it is the decision and order of the Utah State Tax
Commission that the Petition for Reconsideration is denied. It is so ordered.
DATED
this 20th day of February, 1991.
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