ACTION ITEM: Importantly, with regard to all older local sales/use tax refund claims filed on or before July 4, 2013, where the local collector has failed to act on the claim, those pending refund claims must be appealed to the BTA before January 1, 2015.

As we noted in a prior post, the Louisiana legislature has enacted Act 640, which expands the jurisdiction of the Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals (the “BTA”) and changes a number of state and local tax procedures; most importantly, those regarding appeals of assessments and refund claim denials.

Specifically, one of the more significant changes resulting from this legislation is the new local level “deemed denial” provision.  If a local collector fails to act on a local sales/use tax refund claim within one year, the refund claim is “deemed denied,” and the taxpayer must appeal the collector’s “deemed denial” to the BTA within 180 days of the end of the one-year period in which the collector failed to act.  Under the new legislation, the taxpayer still only has 90 days to appeal a local collector’s affirmative denial of a local sales/use tax refund claim. 

ACTION ITEM: Importantly, with regard to all older local sales/use tax refund claims filed on or before July 4, 2013, where the local collector has failed to act on the claim, those pending refund claims must be appealed to the BTA before January 1, 2015.  The Louisiana legislature included this 6-month grace period for taxpayers to transition all “old and cold” local refund claims to the BTA now that those claims are “deemed denied” following the introduction of the new “deemed denial” provision in Act 640.

With regard to local refund claims filed after July 4, 2013 that have been, or will be, “deemed denied” following the collector’s failure to act on the claim within one year, the taxpayer must appeal to the BTA within 180 days of the end of the one-year period in which the collector failed to act.

Remember, however, that the taxpayer still only has 90 days to appeal a local collector’s affirmative denial of a local sales/use tax refund claim.