Taxpayer is an Indiana business that manufactures trailers.
Taxpayer also rents and sells trailers. Taxpayer was audited by the Indiana
Department of Revenue ("Department"), and based upon that audit the
Department issued proposed assessments for sales and use taxes for the 2009 and
2010 tax years.
…
In a letter to the Department, Taxpayer states that it
manufactures trailers, and was told by the "license branch" that
Taxpayer was "not a dealer" and thus could not "charge sales
tax" on Taxpayer's sales of trailers. The Audit Report describes the
situation thusly:
The audit revealed untaxed sales of trailers during the
audit period. Three of the trailers were sold to Indiana customers, and one was
sold to a [out-of-state] customer who purchased and picked up the trailer in
Indiana. Exemption certificates were unable to be provided prior to the
conclusion of the audit. The taxpayer disagrees with the audit findings for the
sales of the trailers. It is the taxpayer's position that he received
conflicting tax information from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles regarding the
collection of sales tax and, based upon this information, quit collecting and
remitting sales tax on the sale of trailers. The taxpayer maintains the
position that he should not be penalized for following instructions provided by
another state agency.
…
Taxpayer is a retail merchant and is required under IC §
6-2.5-2-1 and IC § 6-2.5-4-1 to collect and remit the sales tax. Although
Taxpayer stated at the hearing that Taxpayer sold up to five or six trailers
for each year at issue, the sales are not casual sales under Sales Tax
Information Bulletin 20 (October 2009), 200911 Ind. Reg. 045090898NRA.
Taxpayer argues that he did not collect sales tax because
the BMV told him that he is not a dealer and that Taxpayer should not collect
sales tax. As the Department has noted above, Taxpayer is a retail merchant
making a retail transaction. Further, the Department notes that any advice
Taxpayer may have received from another state agency is not binding upon the
Department (45 IAC
15-3-2 states how a taxpayer can receive a binding ruling from the
Department). Therefore, Taxpayer is responsible for the sales tax and interest
owed on his trailer sales to customers in 2009 and 2010.
