In 2009.
No. The law set a fifteen year deadline that started on July 1, 2009. For all taxes “assessed” prior to July 1, 2009, the first date that the statute of limitations will apply will be midnight on June 30, 2024.
After that point, a straight 15 year period will apply. For example, a tax assessed on January 1, 2010 will expire on December 31, 2025.
If the statute of limitations expires on an otherwise covered tax period, the Department of Taxation may no longer issue a levy or begin a legal proceeding to collect the tax. A common translation of this sentence is that the tax obligation becomes unenforceable.
This is a complicated question. To simplify at the risk of losing some details, the taxes on your statement must be the result of either (a) filing an annual return; or (b) an assessment by the Department of Taxation.
Thus, for Net Income Taxes, all taxes will be covered because there is only an annual return.
For General Excise and Transient Accommodations Taxes, the main category missing here are taxes that are the result of “periodic” returns (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually) where no annual return was filed for that year.
Fifteen (15) years after assessment.
Ten (10) years.
It starts upon the “assessment.” Most returns are “assessed” by processing a filed tax return. Remember that for only annual returns qualify. Some taxes are also “assessed” after an audit or examination results in an “assessment.”
Previously, including at the time the statute of limitations law was enacted, this was a more complicated question because of the Department’s then-outdated computer system and the effort involved in determining when the Department considered a tax assessed.
Currently, it might be reasonable to use the date listed by the Department of Taxation on the e-filing computer system as a starting point.
There is not any guidance on this issue in the statute. A conservative approach would be to use the most recent date, in your case, the audit date.
According to the legislation, after assessment, there are basically four things that could extend the fifteen year period for the duration of the event. Lawyers call these “tolling” events. Here are the events:
Possibly.
The tax laws and rules can be complicated and this is an area where many questions are likely to only be resolved after July 1, 2024, when the initial fifteen year period (for all taxes assessed prior to June 30, 2009, that were not otherwise tolled) elapses.
Its not over until its over.
As I read the statute, only if the State has assessed the taxes, and fifteen years pass without a tolling event from the date of assessment.
Absent a State assessment, there is no collection statute of limitations on unfiled tax returns.
Absent a State assessment, there is no collection statute of limitations on periodic (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual) GE and TA returns. In my experience, it is a common situation that the annual GE and TA returns have been left unfiled.
No. The collection statute of limitations starts upon assessment, so the time period will start upon assessment, in this situation filing, sometime in 2012. Absent an extension or tolling factor, the collection statute will expire sometime in 2027.
This is hard to evaluate and depends upon many factors. It would be reasonable to anticipate the DoTax might take steps to collect as much as reasonably possible prior to the expiration of substantial cumulative balances on July 1, 2024. How they might do this, the ratio of carrot to stick, is guesswork looking forward.
In my view, the statute of limitations is another factor to be used in evaluating your situation and recommending meaningful options to resolve it.
My professional view is that the initial July 1, 2024 date will be a complicating factor for larger ($100,000+ owed) matters, and matters where balances straddle the expiration date (some expiring on July 1, 2024, some at later dates.)
