Oklahoma Enacts Tax Amnesty Program

Oklahoma has enacted legislation directing the Oklahoma Tax Commission to establish a tax amnesty program that will run from September 1, 2017 through November 30, 2017. Eligible taxes include sales and use, mixed beverage, gasoline and diesel, gross production and petroleum excise, corporate and personal income, and personal withholding tax. Eligible taxpayers would be entitled to a waiver of penalty, interest, or other collection fees due on the eligible taxes if the they voluntarily file returns and pay taxes due during the course of the amnesty program. The lookback period for which additional taxes may be assessed will be limited to three taxable years for annually filed taxes or 36 months for taxes that do not have an annual filing frequency. To be eligible to participate, taxpayers must:

• Not have outstanding tax liabilities other than those reported pursuant to this initiative;
• Not have been contacted by the Oklahoma Tax Commission, or third party acting on behalf of the Commission, with respect to the taxpayer’s potential or actual obligation to file a return or make a payment to the state;
• Not have collected taxes from others, such as sales and use taxes or payroll taxes, and not reported those taxes; and
• Not have, within the preceding three years, entered into a voluntary disclosure agreement for the type of tax owed

Taxpayers who meet all of the above qualifications, except those who have collected taxes from others, such as sales and use taxes or payroll taxes, and not reported those taxes, may enter into a modified voluntary disclosure agreement. The provisions of a modified voluntary disclosure agreement would be the same as a voluntary disclosure agreement except the waiver of interest shall not apply except as may be optionally granted at the discretion of the Tax Commission, and the period for which taxes must be reported and remitted or assessed is extended beyond the three year or thirty six month lookback period to include all periods in which tax has been collected but not remitted. (H.B. 2380, Laws 2017, effective July 1, 2017)