Opinion ID: 1659936
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Tax Assessments and Tax Refunds

Text: In England, during the sixteen and seventeen hundreds, there were three forms of taxation  the King's ordinary revenue tax, the local tax, and the King's extraordinary revenue tax. Roger W. Kirst, Administrative Penalties and the Civil Jury: The Supreme Court's Assault on the Seventh Amendment, 126 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1281, 1313 (1978). [3] Extraordinary revenue was, in part, derived from a tax on land, customs on merchandise imports and exports, and an internal excise duty. Id. If a taxpayer failed to pay the assessed tax, the local tax collector could seize and sell the taxpayer's goods or chattels. Id. at 1316. This process of assessing and collecting the tax was a local administrative function that did not involve jury trials. Id. After the tax was collected, the taxpayer had a common law action, against the collector, challenging liability for the tax. Id. at 1317. Such actions involved a jury trial. Id. at 1319-20; see also, United States v. New Mexico, 642 F.2d 397, 401 (10th Cir.1981) ([T]he right of a taxpayer to a jury trial in refund cases is rooted in the common law and was preserved by the Seventh Amendment.). [4] Since neither the common law nor the state or federal constitutions guarantee the right to a jury trial to challenge the amount of a non-judicial tax assessment, we find that no such right exists. It is equally clear that a taxpayer who pays the assessment under protest and seeks a refund is entitled to have a jury decide the issue. Turning to the instant case, we find that this is not a refund case and consistent with our determination, there is no right to a jury trial to challenge the tax assessment. PHI has no constitutional right to have a jury determine the validity of DOR's tax assessments. [5] PHI's options under section 72.011(3) included either tendering the contested amount plus penalties and accrued interest into the court registry or having DOR waive payment pending the contestation. In picking the latter option, PHI asserts that the DOR waiver is the functional equivalent of payment, placing the taxpayer in the position of one who has paid the tax under protest and is requesting a refund. We disagree. The common law right to a jury trial in tax cases attached after the taxpayer paid the tax or had goods or chattel seized by the tax collector. Both of these methods caused the taxpayer to give up something, i.e., the taxpayer was deprived of an asset. In this instance no such deprivation has occurred. However, since we have not previously addressed the impact of a DOR waiver on a taxpayer's right to a jury trial, we will honor PHI's request that they be afforded an opportunity to pay the contested amount into the registry and proceed with a trial by jury. Future cases shall not have this option.