BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
_____________________________________
In Re: ) FINDINGS OF FACT,
: CONCLUSIONS
OF LAW,
XXXXX ) AND FINAL DECISION
:
: Appeal No.
90-1522
: 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 withholding tax.
2. The periods in question are the second,
third and fourth quarters of XXXXX and the first, second, third and fourth
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 second, third and fourth quarters of XXXXX, and the first, second,
third, and fourth quarters of XXXXX. It
is so ordered.
DATED
this 12 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