BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
______________________________
In Re: ) FINDINGS OF FACT,
: CONCLUSIONS
OF LAW,
XXXXX ) AND FINAL DECISION
:
: Appeal No.
91-0715
: Account
No. XXXXX
_____________________________
STATEMENT OF CASE
This
matter came before the Utah State Tax Commission for a formal hearing on
XXXXX. Alan Hennebold, Presiding
Officer, heard the matter for and on behalf of the Commission. Present and representing the Petitioner was
XXXXX owner.
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 withholding tax.
2. The period in question is XXXXX through
XXXXX.
3. Petitioner is a XXXXX company. It primarily does business during the XXXXX
and consequently hires a relatively large number of employees during those
months.
4. Petitioner failed to file its annual
withholding tax reconciliation for XXXXX.
An office audit of Petitioner's withholding tax liability was conducted
by Tax Commission staff in late XXXXX.
Although Petitioner had paid its withholding tax liability and had
provided W-2 forms to its employees, it could not produce copies of the forms
for XXXXX employees. Also, Petitioner
had not filed its annual withholding tax report (TC-96). Petitioner was assessed a penalty of XXXXX
per form, for a total of XXXXX.
5. An additional audit adjustment was made to
Petitioner's XXXXX withholding tax liability to correct a transposition
error. The adjustment resulted in
additional withholding tax of $$$$$, a 10% penalty of $$$$$, and interest.
6. Commission records indicate Petitioner has
failed to timely file or pay its withholding tax liability for several other
periods, both before and after the period in question.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
The
Tax Commission is granted the authority to waive, reduce, or compromise
penalties and interest upon a showing of reasonable cause. (Utah Code Ann. §59-1-401(8).)
DECISION AND ORDER
Petitioner
has failed to exercise due care in its record-keeping for the period in
question, as well as other periods.
With respect to the period in question, Petitioner's negligence is
mitigated by the inadvertent nature of its errors and the fact that it had paid
the tax actually due, except for a small amount of tax hidden by a
transposition error.
Based
upon the foregoing, the Tax Commission finds that sufficient cause has been
shown to justify reduction of the penalty associated with Petitioner's XXXXX
withholding tax liability to the amount of $$$$$. It is so ordered.
DATED
this 9th day of July, 1992.
BY ORDER OF THE UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION.
R. H. Hansen Roger
O. Tew
Chairman Commissioner
Joe B.
Pacheco S.
Blaine Willes
Commissioner Commissioner