BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
_____________________________________
In Re: ) FINDINGS OF FACT,
: CONCLUSIONS
OF LAW,
XXXXX ) AND FINAL DECISION
:
: Appeal No.
90-3094
: Account
No. XXXXX
_____________________________________
STATEMENT OF CASE
This
matter came before the Utah State Tax Commission for a formal hearing on
XXXXX. Joseph G. Linford, Presiding
Officer, heard the matter for and on behalf of the Commission. Present and representing the Petitioner was
XXXXX.
Based
upon the evidence and testimony presented at the hearing, the Tax Commission
hereby makes its:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1.
The tax in question is sales tax.
2.
The period in question is the first quarter XXXXX.
3.
Petitioner mailed the sales tax return and payment to the Tax Commission on
XXXXX. XXXXX testified at the hearing
that he may have mistakenly mailed the sales tax check in the same envelope
with Petitioner's special fuels tax payment.
This envelope was preprinted with the Tax Commission's address.
4.
After several days, Petitioner received a phone call from the Tax Commission
indicating that Petitioner's sales tax check had been received by the special
fuels tax personnel of the Tax Commission and that this was the wrong
department. Petitioner instructed the
person who called him from the Tax Commission to take the return and payment to
the sales tax personnel for proper credit.
She indicated that she would do so.
5. After receiving his XXXXX bank statement,
and checking his own records, XXXXX determined that the original check for the
period in question had not cleared his account. He therefore called the Tax Commission and was told that the
check had not been received by the Tax Commission. Therefore, XXXXX issued another check to replace the missing
check. XXXXX has never received the
missing check back from the bank or from the Tax commission. Petitioner brought the difficulty to the
attention of the Tax Commission before the Tax Commission notified him of the
problem.
6.
A review of Petitioner's bank statement shows that Petitioner's bank account
did have sufficient funds at the time the original check was issued to cover
the amount of that check.
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
Under
the circumstances of this case, the Tax Commission finds that a penalty waiver
is appropriate. Interest, however,
should not be waived because the state was deprived of the use of the funds in
question for a period of time and should be compensated for that loss of use,
particularly when it appears that the difficulty was initially caused by
Petitioner's negligence in including the payment and return of the sales tax in
the wrong envelope to the Tax Commission.
Based
upon the foregoing, the Tax Commission finds that sufficient cause has been
shown which would justify a waiver of the penalty associated with the first
quarter of XXXXX. Interest is not
waived but shall be adjusted to account for the waiver of the penalty. It is so ordered.
DATED
this 2 day of April, 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