BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
_____________________________________
In Re: ) FINDINGS OF FACT,
: CONCLUSIONS
OF LAW,
: AND FINAL
DECISION
XXXXX ) Appeal No. 91-1211
: Account
No. XXXXX
_____________________________________
STATEMENT OF CASE
This
matter came before the Utah State Tax Commission for a hearing on XXXXX. G. Blaine Davis, Administrative Law Judge,
Presiding Officer, heard the matter for and on behalf of the Commission. At the time set for the hearing no one
appeared for and in behalf of Petitioner, but the Presiding Officer later the
same day received a telephone call from XXXXX, Branch Manager, who represented
that she had not attended the hearing because she was on maternity leave so
that it had slipped her mind. It was
agreed that although the matter had been set for a Prehearing Conference, no
default would be entered and the matter would be handled as a formal hearing on
the telephone.
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 periods in question are the second,
third and fourth quarters of XXXXX, third and fourth quarters of XXXXX, and first
quarter of XXXXX.
3. XXXXX represented that she replaced the
prior office manager who had been embezzling funds from the company and who
ultimately was convicted, served time in jail for the embezzlement, and was
ordered to make restitution to the company for the funds embezzled.
4. In addition, the prior office manager was
failing to properly file and pay the withholding tax returns, but was
representing to the company headquarters that all taxes were filed and current. When notices would arrive from the Tax
Commission, the prior office manager would either throw away such notices or
take steps to make sure that no one else at the office became aware that the
taxes had not been timely filed and paid.
5. When all of the facts became known to management,
they fired the prior office manager and hired XXXXX, who made an audit of the
status of all returns and filed XXXXX taxes three days after commencing
employment, and then filed the tax returns for the third and fourth quarters of
XXXXX and the first quarter of XXXXX approximately a month later after having a
chance to audit the books and records to determine the amounts due.
7. A late filing penalty of 10% and late
payment penalty of 10% were both imposed upon the Petitioner, together with
interest at the statutory rate.
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
Based
upon the foregoing, the Tax Commission finds that sufficient cause has been
shown which would justify a waiver of the penalty, but sufficient cause has not
been shown to justify a waiver of the interest associated with the withholding
tax returns for relevant portions of XXXXX, XXXXX and XXXXX. Interest, however, is to be adjusted to
account for the waiver of the penalties.
It is so ordered.
DATED
this 10 day of December, 1991.
BY ORDER OF THE UTAH STATE TAX COMMISSION.
R. H. Hansen Roger
O. Tew
Chairman Commissioner
Joe B.
Pacheco S.
Blaine Willes
Commissioner Commissioner