The Vermont Tax Amnesty program will be in effect for six weeks from July 20, 2009 until August 31, 2009. During this time late penalties will be subtracted from the outstanding bill so the taxpayer will only owe the tax and interest. This will help people who want to obey the law but are assigned huge penalties for unpaid taxes. The Amnesty program applies to taxes due on or before January 26, 2009 and includes income taxes for 2007 and any prior year. It also includes withholding, sales/use taxes and rooms/meals taxes for 2008 and any prior year along with several other kinds of taxes. The Amnesty applies to taxes for which a proper return has been filed but the taxes reported were not paid. It includes back taxes to be paid on an installment plan if taxes and interest are paid in full during the amnesty. Under this program even late payment penalties on accounts placed with outside collection agencies will be forgiven.
There is a Voluntary Disclosure program running at the same time as the Tax Amnesty program. Under the voluntary disclosure program, taxpayers who have not been contacted by the Tax Department and who approach the Department to pay past due taxes are forgiven tax debts that are more than 3 years old. Contact the Vermont Tax Department for more information.
The Amnesty hot line is 802-828-2518. Here's the address for the main website for the amnesty program:
http://www.state.vt.us/tax/VTAPlanding.shtml Contact me if you need further information at
cbranagan@leg.state.vt.us Rep. Carolyn Branagan
Franklin-1, Fairfax/Georgia
Vermont House of Representatives
