Illinois Administrative Code › Title 86 - REVENUE › Part 850 - LOCAL GOVERNMENT REVENUE RECAPTURE ACT AND CERTIFIED AUDIT PILOT PROGRAM › Section 850.115 - Participation in the Certified Audit Pilot Program

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
a) Municipality, County, and Third Party
			 Participation.
1) The Department shall
			 provide financial information to a municipality or county for review pursuant
			 to Section 11 of the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act.
2) Municipalities or counties may provide
			 this financial information to registered third parties to perform the review of
			 local retailers' and service occupation taxes, if all requirements set forth in
			 this Part are met. Based on this review, if a municipality or county discovers
			 that a taxpayer may have underpaid local retailers' or service occupation
			 taxes, then it may refer the matter to the Department for audit
			 consideration.
3) Third parties
			 must be registered with the Department pursuant to Section
			 850.130 before referring a
			 taxpayer to the Department for audit consideration.
4)
Tax compliance referrals may be
			 made only by a municipality, county, or third party and shall be made in the
			 form and manner required by the Department, including any requirement that the
			 referral be submitted electronically. The tax compliance referral shall, at a
			 minimum, include:
A)
proof of
			 registration as a third party,
if the referral was made by a third
			 party,
B)
a copy of a
			 contract between the third party and the county or municipality,
if
			 the referral was made by a third party,
C)
the taxpayer's name, Department
			 account identification number, mailing address, and business location,
			 and
D)
the
			 specific reason for the tax compliance referral, including as much detail as
			 possible.
[50 ILCS
			 355/10-30(b) ]
5)
With respect to taxes administered
			 by the Department, units of local government and third parties with which they
			 contract are prohibited from doing the following:
A)
engaging in an audit of any
			 taxpayer;
B)
assessing tax against any taxpayer;
C)
engaging in collection actions
			 against any taxpayer for the tax; or
D)
engaging in any other action
			 related to such taxes that is assigned by law to the Department.
[50 ILCS
			 355/5-50(d) ]
6)
Upon entering into a contract with
			 a municipality or county, a third party shall be prohibited from communicating
			 directly or indirectly in any manner with a taxpayer known or believed to be
			 operating within that municipality or county about any matters directly or
			 indirectly related to, or covered by, the contract.
[50 ILCS
			 355/5-50(a) ] The Act also prohibits
a local government from sharing financial information with another
			 local government or another third party. A local government also may not share
			 the findings of a third party with another local government or another third
			 party.
[50 ILCS
			 355/5-50(e) ]
7)
A contracting municipality or
			 county shall refuse to provide any information, including financial
			 information, to any third party who violates this Act or rules adopted pursuant
			 to this Act or the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act or rules adopted pursuant to
			 the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act.
[50 ILCS
			 355/5-40(a) ]
8) A third party must annually provide the
			 local government with a final summary of its review for publication. The third
			 party is responsible for ensuring that the summary contains no personal or
			 identifiable taxpayer information. The summary can only aggregate amounts by
			 tax type and can make no claim of specific tax savings or revenue generation.
No aggregated data may be published that includes taxpayer information
			 for 4 or fewer taxpayers.
(See
			 50 ILCS
			 355/5-30).
9)
Under no circumstances may a
			 person, including a municipality or county or third party, other than the
			 person audited and his or her attorney, have any right to participate in an
			 appeal or other proceeding regarding the audit, participate in settlement
			 negotiations, challenge the validity of any settlement between the Department
			 and any person, or review any materials, other than financial information as
			 otherwise provided in this Act, that are subject to the confidentiality
			 provisions of the underlying tax Act. In addition, the Department's
			 determination of whether to audit a taxpayer or the result of the audit creates
			 no justiciable cause of action, and any adjudication related to this program is
			 limited to the taxpayer's rights in an administrative hearing held by the
			 Department, an administrative hearing held by the Illinois Independent Tax
			 Tribunal, or related to payments made under protest as provided in Section 2a.1
			 of the State Officers and Employees Money Disposition Act, as
			 appropriate.
[50 ILCS
			 355/10-40(d) ]