Pursuant
to NRS 360.263
The Nevada Tax Commission (NTC) may enter into a compromise with a taxpayer
concerning the liability of the taxpayer for any tax, contribution, premium,
fee, interest or penalty that the Department has determined is owed. This
includes all taxes administered by the Department with the exception of
property tax. A compromise is acceptance of an amount that is less than the
liability as full satisfaction of that liability.
See NAC 360.437 and NAC 360.438
These
regulations were passed by the NTC to administer the processing of a taxpayers'
Offer in Compromise (OIC). During the period of time the Department is
processing the OIC the Department will not take any further collection activity
on the debt that is included in the offer until the NTC has accepted or
rejected the offer. However, as part of the application process the Waiver of Limitations must be signed and submitted by the
person making the request consenting to suspend any and all statutory periods
of limitation relevant to the collection of the liability pending acceptance or
rejection of the offer. Below is the OIC application that includes further
explanations.
An OIC
will only be considered if the request is made in writing and includes a
detailed explanation as to why a person is requesting the compromise. The
person will be notified by an employee when the request is received.
There are
three reasons a liability can be compromised:
1. Doubt
as to Collectability
These
requests are from someone who feels they are unable to pay the full amount. The
Personal Financial Statement and Financial Information Statement for Businesses if the
business is ongoing must be completed to process these requests. The person
will be given 30 days to complete the form and submit the documents with all
their verification to the Revenue Officer. If the completed forms are not
submitted in 30 days the Revenue Officer will inform the person in writing that
further collection activity will continue and no further processing of the
offer can be done without the information. If the form is submitted timely but
is not properly completed or all the verification not attached, it will be
returned to the person with a written explanation of the deficiencies. The
forms are considered complete when all the sections are either completed or are
not applicable (N/A) and the verification required by the forms is attached for
the prior 2 or 3 months.
2. Doubt
as to Liability
The
person may request a compromise because they do not believe they owe the total
amount of the liability. The person must describe in their written request why,
in their judgment, they do not owe the tax liability and offer the correct
amount of tax, penalty and interest owed instead. With this type of request the
financial statements and verifications are not required; however, verification
of the person's circumstances including why they could not timely petition the
assessment will be required. The person has 30 days to submit this verification.
If the NTC has previously made a decision on the liability in question or the
person has not exhausted their administrative petition rights provided by
statute, the OIC will not be processed.
3.
Consideration of Equity and Fairness
These are
typically hardship situations but not necessarily financial hardships. There
may be exceptional circumstances present that either caused a person not to pay
the correct amount of tax or payment of the full amount of the tax would create
a hardship or would be unfair and inequitable. The financial statements and
verification may be required with these requests depending on the exceptional
circumstances present. Verification must be provided to support the exceptional
circumstances within 30 days.
Acceptance
of an OIC may depend on the person's history of compliance with all applicable
requirements in other instances besides that which caused the liability the
taxpayer is wanting to compromise. The person must first exhaust their
administrative petition rights before an offer is made. The NTC may accept an
OIC that includes an installment agreement.
Once a
liability has been compromised the person's debt is considered paid in full,
however the NTC may enter into an OIC and still be able to collect the rest of
the liability from any liable person named or part of the OIC.