Opinion ID: 2600175
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Abatement of Interest

Text: In this case, BOTA found that the City was not entitled to an abatement of interest on the assessment of sales tax: 74. For the Taxpayer to be entitled to the abatement of interest, the delay in assessing the tax must have resulted from the negligence of a Department employee. Black's Law Dictionary (6th Ed. 1991), defines negligence as, `The omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided by those ordinary considerations which ordinarily regulate human affairs, would do, or the doing of something which a reasonable and prudent man would not do.' In this case, a delay in completing the assessment was caused by the retirement of the first auditor. Once a second auditor was assigned, the audit was completed in a timely manner. The Board finds that the Department assessed the subject tax by its Notices of Assessment dated February 5, 1996. Based upon the de novo record before this Board, the Board believes there was no negligence on the part of any employee of the Department [that] contributed to the delay in completing the assessment. The Board finds that the Taxpayer's request for an abatement of interest is denied. 75. Further, the Board notes that essentially the Taxpayer's assertion is that there was an undue delay in the issuance of the final determination letter pursuant to K.S.A. 79-2975, not the Notices of Assessment. However, the Board finds that its jurisdiction is limited to a review of the director's waiver or non-waiver of interest in this matter for a delay in the Notices of Assessment. `The State Board of Tax Appeals is a creature of the Legislature. Its authority is only such as is expressly or impliedly given by legislative enactment. If it attempts to exercise jurisdiction over a subject matter not conferred by the Legislature, its orders with respect thereto are without authority of law and void.' Walkenmeyer v. Stevens County Oil & Gas Co., 205 Kan. 486, 491, 470 P.2d 730 (1970) (citations omitted); Vaughn v. Martell, 226 Kan. 658, 603 P.2d 91 (1979). The Board finds that K.S.A. 79-3268(f), and amendments thereto, does not address a delay in the issuance of a written final determination. Absent any other statutory authority, the Board lacks jurisdiction to consider the specific interest issue raised by the Taxpayer. In City of Wichita I, the City argued that it was entitled to an abatement of interest on the assessment of additional sales tax on electricity. BOTA reached a verbatim conclusion as was reached in paragraph 74 in this case, but it did not make the findings set forth in paragraph 75. On appeal, the City argued that BOTA erred in finding no departmental evidence and it argued that BOTA failed to address the application of K.S.A. 79-3268(d) to inordinate delays in the administrative proceedings, specifically, the 3-year delay and statutory violations in issuing a final determination upholding the assessment. On appeal, this court affirmed BOTA's conclusion: Before the Court of Appeals, the City argued that the audit began in September 1994 and was not complete until February 1996. However, the delay from the time Smith began his work on the audit until the time Blaha began her work on the audit affected the audit period itself. Thus, any delay gave the City the benefit of excluding 9 months, i.e., 3 years before Smith began his audit (September 1991) until 3 years before Blaha began her audit (June 1, 1992), from the audit period. Regarding the time Blaha took to complete the audit, the City's attorney at the hearing before the ALJ remarked that the time was not unreasonable. The record supports BOTA's determination and there is no evidence which would support reversal of the negative finding that the Department's employees were not negligent in either assessing the tax or in notifying the taxpayer. The City complained about the `inordinate time required to move this case through the administrative process.' The Department pointed out that the statutory language only contemplated delay in assessing the tax or notifying the taxpayer of the liability. The City fails to persuasively respond to the Department's argument that delays other than in assessing tax and notification of the taxpayer are beyond the reach of K.S.A. 79-3268(d). `Ordinary words are to be given their ordinary meaning, and a statute should not be so read as to add that which is not readily found therein or to read out what as a matter of ordinary English language is in it. [Citation omitted.]' GT, Kansas, L.L.C. v. Riley County Register of Deeds, 271 Kan. 311, 316, 22 P.3d 600 (2001). Without any statutory authority for extending K.S.A. 79-3268(d) to delays other than those plainly specified in that subsection, we decline to expand that subsection. City of Wichita I, 274 Kan. at 936-37.