Monday, November 18, 2013

Revenue Finds Reasonable Cause for Late Payment Where Travel Complicated Filing and No History of Late Payment Existed

Excerpts of Revenue's Determination follow:

Taxpayer had a withholding tax payment for the period of March 2013 that Taxpayer did not make timely. The Indiana Department of Revenue ("Department") issued a proposed assessment, which also included penalty and interest.
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Taxpayer protests the imposition of the ten percent negligence penalty on Taxpayer's failure to timely remit withholding tax. Taxpayer also protests the assessment of interest. Regarding interest, under IC § 6-8.1-10-1(e) interest cannot be waived.
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Taxpayer, in correspondence to the Department, states:
 
[Taxpayer] is very prompt in making withholding payments and we have not missed a single payment since 2008. The withholding payment was only delayed by 12 days and as soon as it was brought to our attention, the payment was immediately made without any further delay.
 
During the hearing, Taxpayer stated that the late payment was due to the fact that the employee responsible for remitting the payment was travelling on a business trip. Taxpayer also states that it has "no late payments since 2008." Taxpayer argues that since the responsible employee travels frequently to places "where Internet [ sic] access might be limited," that the travel caused the inadvertent late payment. After a review of the facts and Taxpayer's withholding remittance history, the Department finds that Taxpayer has established reasonable cause in this instance.