The Tennessee Department of Revenue (Department) recently posted certain selected informal conference summaries which provides taxpayers with insight into how the Hearing Office will address various issues arising under certain topic areas. The topics of this posting, which was released on February 9, 2024, include personal liability for taxes; successor liability; lack of records, consumer use tax; sales and use tax; business tax; franchise and excise taxes; and miscellaneous other taxes. Each topic includes several summaries of related conference decisions rendered by the Department's Administrative Hearing Office (Hearing Office) during the State's fiscal year ending June 30, 2023. Similar summaries were last posted by the Department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022. These informal conference summaries can be found here.
By way of brief background, a taxpayer receiving a Notice of Proposed Assessment (Notice) has 30 days within which to request an informal conference within the Department's Hearing Office. Timely requesting such an informal conference is not the sole approach for disputing such a Notice, since the taxpayer, for example, has the right to forego the Hearing Office and contest the Notice by the timely filing of a complaint in the appropriate court. Nevertheless, requesting an informal conference can provide certain benefits to the taxpayer such as reduced costs for disputing the Notice and the possibility of resolving the matter with the Department's Audit Division in the informal conference setting.
The Department is authorized by Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-1-1438(h) to publish guidance to taxpayers and practitioners resulting from these conference decisions. However, nothing in that Section authorizes the disclosure of return or tax information; further, a conference decision is not to be referenced or cited as precedence in any instance or as guidance unless such guidance has been published or publicized consistent with that Section. In that regard, Section 67-1-108 defines "published guidance" as meaning tax manuals, important notices, statements presented in a question-and-answer format, or other substantive statements from the Department regarding the taxability of a privilege that are published on the Department's website.
While these informal conference summaries can offer some insights on particular issues, each taxpayer's situation must be considered based on its own facts and circumstances.
