Court Opinion

ID: 9660767
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:20:25.157452+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:21.990272
License: Public Domain

GUNN, Judge,
concurring.
The dissent filed in this case suggests that the majority holds something other than what was intended. Therefore, this particularly unusual device of a concurring opinion is utilized to clear any murk.
First, the dissent asserts that the only basis for tolling the two year statute of limitations proclaimed in § 144.220, RSMo 19781 is for a fraudulent tax return; and as there is no evidence of fraud, the majority is in error in not applying the limitation.
But the majority opinion never professes that the taxpayer was guilty of fraud. Section 144.220, RSMo 1974, as referred to in the majority specifically provides an exception to the two year statute of limitations in instances of “neglect or refusal to make a [tax] return.” As stated in the majority, it was the taxpayer’s neglect and refusal to make his return that provided the necessary fulcrum to lift the statute of limitations for assessment of the back taxes in this case. Fraud has nothing to do with the majority opinion’s lifting of the limitations provisions of § 144.220, RSMo 1974.
Second, the dissent asserts that the taxpayer is a victim of “bureaucratic bungling,” and that he should not be required to pay sales tax because his counsel failed to specifically advise him of his legal obligation to do so. But as described by the dissent, the taxpayer is an experienced “businessman with several business interests and who pays sales taxes on all of his ... businesses.” And the taxpayer was warned by his counsel that “he should prepare himself for it [the collection of taxes] unless he wanted a court battle.” That statement should have been sufficient tocsin to forewarn a seasoned entrepreneur of the obligation to pay tax, or appeal, when faced with assessments on two separate occasions. His attorney’s presage could only have reiterated the existing and potential tax liability.

. Now § 144.220, RSMo Cum.Supp.1984.