Bill Text: MS HB131 | 2017 | Regular Session | Engrossed
Bill Title: Department of Revenue; authorize to compromise and settle certain tax liabilities.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Failed) 2017-03-08 - Died On Calendar [HB131 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2017-HB131-Engrossed.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2017 Regular Session
To: Ways and Means
By: Representatives Smith, Sykes, Wilson, Reynolds, Brown, Patterson, Dixon
House Bill 131
(As Passed the House)
AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE TO DEVELOP PROCEDURES FOR THE RECEIPT AND CONSIDERATION OF OFFERS TO COMPROMISE AND SETTLE FINALLY DETERMINED TAX LIABILITIES THAT ARE DOUBTFUL CLAIMS; TO AUTHORIZE THE COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH A TAXPAYER UNDER WHICH A FINALLY DETERMINED TAX LIABILITY THAT IS A DOUBTFUL CLAIM IS SETTLED AND COMPROMISED; TO PROVIDE THAT THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT SHALL BE BINDING AND A TAXPAYER'S LIABILITIES FOR TAXES, INTEREST AND PENALTIES WILL BE FULLY AND FINALLY COMPROMISED; TO PROVIDE THAT IF THE COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE LATER DETERMINES THAT THE TAXPAYER MISREPRESENTED THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE TAXPAYER OR ANY PROPERTY BELONGING TO THE TAXPAYER OR OTHER PERSON LIABLE FOR THE TAX, ALL COMPROMISED LIABILITIES MAY BE REESTABLISHED; TO AMEND SECTION 31-19-27, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT A DOUBTFUL CLAIM IS A CLAIM FOR A FINALLY DETERMINED TAX LIABILITY FOR WHICH A NOTICE OF TAX LIEN HAS BEEN ENROLLED IN THE UNIFORM STATE TAX LIEN REGISTRY AND FOR THE COLLECTION OF WHICH THE ORDINARY PROCESS OF LAW HAS BEEN INEFFECTUAL; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 31-19-29, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDE FOR THE COMPROMISE OF DOUBTFUL CLAIMS, FOR PURPOSES OF AMENDMENT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. (1) The Commissioner of Revenue shall develop procedures for the receipt and consideration of offers to compromise and settle doubtful claims as defined in Section 31-19-27. If the commissioner makes a determination that a finally determined tax liability is a doubtful claim as defined in Section 31-19-27 and should be settled and compromised the Commissioner of Revenue is authorized to enter into an agreement with a taxpayer under which the finally determined tax liability that is a doubtful claim is settled and compromised. The settlement agreement shall be binding and a taxpayer's liabilities for taxes, interest and penalties will be fully and finally compromised. If the Commissioner of Revenue later determines that the taxpayer misrepresented, whether intentionally or not, the financial condition of the taxpayer or any property belonging to the taxpayer or other person liable for the tax, all compromised liabilities may be reestablished without regard to any statute of limitations that otherwise may be applicable.
(2) The Commissioner of Revenue shall have all powers necessary to implement and administer this section, and shall promulgate rules and regulations, in accordance with the Mississippi Administrative Procedures Law, necessary for the implementation of this section.
SECTION 2. Section 31-19-27, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
31-19-27. (1) A
doubtful claim of the state, or of the county, city, town, village, or levee
board is one for which judgment has been rendered and for the collection of
which the ordinary process of law has been ineffectual; debts due by drainage
districts or other taxing districts or sinking funds to counties under the Rehabilitation
Act of 1928, being Chapter 88 * * *, Laws of 1928, and Chapter 16 of
the Acts of the Special Session of 1931; those debts due counties by drainage
districts, which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation has heretofore refused
to refinance; debts due for sixteenth section township school fund loans made
to churches, where the board of supervisors finds that the value of the
security given therefor is insufficient or inadequate to pay or satisfy the
principal and interest of said loan, and when the church repays the principal
of said loan; and debts due by counties and townships to drainage districts for
drainage district assessments or taxes levied and assessed upon sixteenth
section lands.
(2) A doubtful claim also is one for which a notice of tax lien has been enrolled in the Uniform State Tax Lien registry for a finally determined tax liability and for the collection of which the ordinary process of law has been ineffectual.
SECTION 3. Section 31-19-29, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:
31-19-29. The Governor, on the advice of the Attorney General or Chairman of the State Tax Commission, may, upon application of the defendant or debtor proposing a compromise, settle and compromise any doubtful claim of the state, or of any county, city, town, or village, or of any levee board against such defendant or debtor, upon such terms as he may deem proper, the board of supervisors in the case of a county, and the municipal authorities in the case of a city, town or village, and the levee board in the case of a claim of a levee board, concurring therein. The Governor, upon application of a drainage district having obligations outstanding to a county under the provisions of Chapter 88, Laws of 1928, and Chapter 16, Laws of the Extraordinary Session of 1931, or obligations which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation has heretofore refused to refinance, may settle and compromise any claim, debt or obligation that said drainage district may owe any county in the State of Mississippi for money loaned said district under the provisions of said Chapter 88, Laws of 1928, or any other claim, debt or obligation that said drainage district may owe the county which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation has heretofore refused to finance, if the board of supervisors of said county concurs in the application of the drainage district. The Governor, upon application by the board of supervisors for any taxing districts of said county or sinking funds of said county under the control and supervision of said board of supervisors having obligations outstanding and due to said county under the provisions of Chapter 88, Laws of 1928, and Chapter 16, Laws of the Extraordinary Session of 1931, may settle and compromise any claim, debt, or obligation that said taxing districts or sinking funds may owe said county for money loaned said taxing districts or sinking funds under the provisions of said Chapter 88, Laws of 1928; and provided that the Governor, on the advice of the Attorney General, and upon application of a church owing a sixteenth section township school fund loan, may settle and compromise such debt or obligation if the board of supervisors of the said county concurs in the application of the said church. The Governor may, on the advice of the Attorney General, in like manner compromise and settle a claim of a drainage district for unpaid assessments or taxes upon sixteenth section lands upon application of the board of supervisors wherein such sixteenth section is situated, if the commissioners of the drainage district concur therein.
SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2017.
