Securing Disputed Assessments  
The Department has failed again to deny a taxpayer access to the courts on the theory that it did not satisfy the security requirements of Florida Statutes § 72.011(3). In Pagenet, Inc. v. Dept. of Revenue, 30 Fla. L. Weekly D507 (Fla. 1st DCA 2005), the appellate court reversed the trial court’s ruling that the taxpayer had failed to satisfy jurisdictional requirements for challenging a sales tax assessment. That statute requires that in any action filed in circuit court contesting an assessment, the taxpayer pay uncontested amounts and do one of the following: a) tender the amount of the contested assessment into the court registry, b) secure a written waiver from the Department, c) “file with the complaint a cash bond or a surety bond . . . or by any other security arrangement as may be approved by the court, and conditioned upon payment in full of the judgment . . . .” The taxpayer made no tender, filed no bond, and secured no waiver, but did file with the complaint asking the court to approve an alternative security arrangement. The trial court held that it had no such original authority, but could only review and approve or disapprove an alternative security arrangement first negotiated by the taxpayer and the Department. The appellate court held that the jurisdictional requirements were satisfied by the taxpayer’s filing of the subject motion, saying that the plain language of the statute allowed the court to approve an alternative security arrangement without the Department’s concurrence. The Department has made the same or similar objections in several other cases through the years and continued failed to persuade the courts that they lacked jurisdiction or the authority to decide what measures would adequately secure payment of any eventual judgment in the State’s favor.

Posted: 2005-03-17 00:00:00.0

Return To Current Developments