Taxpayer is an out-of-state corporation doing business in
Indiana.
...
The Department imposed a ten percent penalty and interest on
Taxpayer because the Department found that Taxpayer – having filed a 2009
amended corporate income tax return adjusting its apportionment factor thus
owing more tax – failed to remit ninety percent of the full amount of corporate
income tax on or before the original due date for payment.
...
The applicable statute is IC § 6-8.1-6-1, which provides in
relevant part that:
(a) If a person responsible for filing a tax return is
unable to file the return by the appropriate due date, he may petition the department,
before that due date, for a filing extension. The person must include with the
petition a payment of at least ninety percent (90[percent]) of the tax that is
reasonably expected to be due on the due date. When the department receives the
petition and the payment, the department shall grant the person a sixty (60)
day extension.
(b) If a person responsible for filing a tax return has
received an extension of the due date and is still unable to file the return by
the extended due date, he may petition the department for another extension.
The person must include in the petition a statement of the reasons for his
inability to file the return by the due date. If the department finds that the
person's petition is proper and that the person has good cause for requesting
the extension, the department may extend the person's due date for any period
that the department deems reasonable under the circumstances. The department
may allow additional, successive extensions if the person properly petitions
for the extension before the end of his current extension period.
(c) If the Internal Revenue Service allows a person an
extension on his federal income tax return, the corresponding due dates for the
person's Indiana income tax returns are automatically extended for the same
period as the federal extension, plus thirty (30) days. However, the person
must pay at least ninety percent (90[percent]) of the Indiana income tax that
is reasonably expected to be due on the original due date by that due date, or
he may be subject to the penalties imposed for failure to pay the tax.
(Emphasis added).
Taxpayer has made an affirmative showing of reasonable cause
for underpaying its estimated 2009 taxes. IC § 6-8.1-10-2.1, IC § 6-8.1-6-1 and
45 IAC 15-11-2.
The assessment of the ten percent penalty is waived. However, pursuant to IC §
6-8.1-10-1(e), the Department cannot waive interest.
