Are you eligible for tax amnesty?

Posted by Mark Chapman on July 6th, 2010 at 10:47 pm

Julia Cart­land

By Julia Cart­land, CPA

“I’m with the gov­ern­ment, and I’m here to help.”

Have you heard that saying?

I pre­fer the say­ing: “I hate pay­ing taxes, but hate pay­ing inter­est and penal­ties even more.”

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OK – so maybe you have to be a geeky accoun­tant to have that say­ing on the tip of your tongue. But busi­ness own­ers and indi­vid­u­als who have got­ten behind on taxes or failed to file the proper tax returns may want to pay atten­tion to both of these say­ings. If you are in this sit­u­a­tion, Florida’s new tax amnesty pro­gram just might be able to help.

The Florida Depart­ment of Rev­enue has cre­ated a tax amnesty pro­gram that runs through Sept. 30. This pro­gram reduces inter­est on past due bal­ances by up to 50 per­cent and waives penal­ties. The pro­gram cov­ers most taxes assessed by the state of Florida, includ­ing sales tax, tourist devel­op­ment tax and cor­po­rate income tax. It does not include state licens­ing fees, unem­ploy­ment tax and prop­erty tax.

This pro­gram is designed help indi­vid­u­als and busi­ness own­ers get back on track. It is also designed to reach often-overlooked taxes, such as sales tax on rentals and use tax on inter­net and cat­a­log purchases.

As with all amnesty pro­grams, you must exer­cise cau­tion. When you vol­un­teer for this pro­gram, you agree to dis­close and pay taxes owed to Florida since 2007. The amnesty agree­ment requires tax­pay­ers to waive their right to con­test taxes and inter­est for returns cov­ered by the three-year look-back period. You also waive the right to amend returns and waive the right to claim refunds for returns cov­ered by the look-back period.

If you can­not pay all past-due taxes, you can set up an install­ment agree­ment with the Florida Depart­ment of Rev­enue. Con­tact your tax pro­fes­sional or the Florida Depart­ment of Rev­enue at http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/amnesty for more information.

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Julia Cart­land is a Cer­ti­fied Pub­lic Accoun­tant and licensed Com­mu­nity Asso­ci­a­tion Man­ager. She is part­ner with Mercier and Cart­land, a CPA firm with offices in Engle­wood. Con­tact Julia at 941−474−9309 or Julia@EnglewoodCPAs.com.

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