Workshops examining Nevada business tax amnesty under way

Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001 | 11:21 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Thousands of Nevada companies may not have paid the state business tax nor the state sales and use tax.

But nobody seems to know exactly how many companies haven't paid.

"We don't have a clue" on the numbers, says Dino DiCianno, deputy executive director of the state Taxation Department.

DiCianno today was to conduct the department's first workshop on designing a tax amnesty program for businesses that haven't paid taxes.

In 1993, DiCianno said, an amnesty program on the use tax yielded $2.5 million from 1,800 businesses. But new companies, the owners of which may not realize they are responsible for paying these levies, have since located in Nevada.

The amnesty program would waive all penalties and interest, but the business would still have to pay the full amount due.

Failure to pay a tax carries a penalty of up to 10 percent, and interest accrues at 1 percent a month.

The second workshop will be held in Las Vegas on Sept. 11 at 9 a.m. at the Grant Sawyer Building, Room 4412. After getting comments from businesses, the department hopes to have a regulation ready for adoption by the October meeting of the state Tax Commission.

At its meeting earlier this month the commission gave preliminary approval to the amnesty program to bring more companies into compliance with the law. Tax Department Director Dave Pursell said, "We'll have to see what the commission wants to do after the workshops."

Under the initial proposed regulation the amnesty period would last for six months and would apply to all taxpayers, regardless of whether they are registered with the state Taxation Department.

If the taxpayer has registered with the state, the amnesty period would go back three years. If the business has not registered, the amnesty period would extend back eight years for waiving the penalty and interest on the amount due.

The tax due would have to be paid by the end of the amnesty period. If any tax remained, interest would start to accrue on the unpaid balance on the first day after the end of the amnesty period.

The department would continue to audit businesses during the amnesty period. If an examination found that a taxpayer owed money to the state, the interest and penalty would be waived if the amount were paid within 45 days.

The department notes that back use taxes could be applied to out-of-state purchase of autos, airplanes and boats.