Committee advances bill waiving penalties and interest for taxpayers, sets 90-day window

The House Standing Committee on Ways and Means voted to prepare a committee report on House Bill 24-12, a measure to waive penalties and interest on unpaid taxes for qualifying taxpayers and to open a 90-day application window if the bill becomes law.

Vice Speaker Diego Camacho, the bill’s author, told the committee the proposal is intended “to promote economic recovery by providing relief to CNAIC taxpayers by waiving penalties and interest.” He said similar amnesty laws have been enacted several times in the past.

Committee members agreed to treat a drafting error in the bill’s findings as a technical correction, changing a reference from 60 days to 90 days to match the bill’s operative period. The committee also discussed, at length, a provision that would authorize the secretary of finance to promulgate rules and regulations to implement the amnesty.

The bill contains a list of exclusions. Under the proposed language (section 4(e) of the draft discussed) businesses or entities that previously availed themselves of amnesty under prior public laws would not be eligible to receive the benefit again. The public laws cited by the author during the hearing included Public Law 12-51, Public Law 14-28, Public Law 18-30 and Public Law 18-65.

Members pressed how the finance department would determine eligibility when a business changes its name or incorporates a new trade name. Legal counsel and members said the secretary of finance would be expected to exercise discretion and due diligence; the committee asked that the committee report clarify that finance should assess whether an applicant is the “substantially the same company” when names change.

After discussion, the committee approved a motion to direct staff to draft a committee report on HB 24-12, including the technical correction to change 60 days to 90 days and language clarifying enforcement/eligibility guidance for the secretary of finance. The motion was adopted. The committee did not attach a vote-by-name record in the transcript; the chair announced the ayes were 7 for the motion.

Next steps: Committee staff will draft the report and transmit HB 24-12 to the full House for consideration.