Missouri Senate

House Committee Substitute

The act modifies laws regarding the collection of moneys owed to the state. The Director of the Department of Revenue is authorized to retain one percent of the amount of any local sales or use taxes collected by the department for the cost of collection. Beginning January 1, 2012, a statement of no tax due will be required for the issuance or renewal of all city and county occupation licenses as well as all state licenses required to conduct business. Such statement must be dated not more than sixty days from the date of application for license to be valid. The Director of Revenue may enter into an agreement with any state agency responsible for issuing any state license requiring the agency to provide the department with the name and tax identification number of each applicant for licensure within one month of the date the application is filed or at least one month prior to the anticipated license renewal. If an applicant is delinquent on any taxes, the department director must send a notice to the licensing agency and the applicant. An applicant's license must be suspended within 90 days after the notice unless: the taxes are paid; an arrangement has been made with the department to pay the taxes; the taxes were paid under protest; or the tax liability is found to be reasonably disputed.

Anyone making a claim or having a judgment under the provisions of the State Legal Expense Fund must have a no-tax due statement from the department before any moneys can be expended from the fund for the settlement of any liability claim. The act allows an offset from the State Legal Expense Fund to satisfy any delinquent tax debt owed before payment is made to the person. Payments of $10,000 or greater from the fund for property damage claims are not required to have a no-tax due statement.

The act provides taxpayers with amnesty from the assessment or payment of all penalties, additions to tax, and interest on delinquencies of unpaid taxes administered by the department which occurred on or prior to December 31, 2010. To receive amnesty under the act, a taxpayer must: apply for amnesty; file a tax return for each tax period for which amnesty is requested; pay the unpaid taxes in full from August 1, 2011, to October 31, 2011; and agree to comply with state tax laws for the next eight years from the date of the agreement. All new revenues resulting from the tax amnesty program will be deposited into the General Revenue Fund unless otherwise earmarked by the Missouri Constitution. State agencies may refer any debt owed to them to the department for the collection. The department and the referring state agency may exchange necessary information but must comply with federal and state laws regarding the confidentiality of information and records. The department may compromise any referred state debt and use all general remedies afforded creditors of Missouri, remedies specific to the referring state agency, and remedies afforded the state in general. Unless a judgment or lien was filed prior to the agency referring the debt to the department, the venue for any suit filed for the collection of state debt will be in Cole County.

The department can employ staff, attorneys, the Attorney General, prosecuting attorneys, and private collection agencies to aid in the collection of debt. The department must add 10% to the amount of debt to be collected for the cost of collection which may be waived under certain conditions.

The director of revenue may issue an administrative garnishment once he or she has filed a certificate of lien in the circuit court for delinquent income or sales or use taxes. Any person receiving this order must turn over any of the taxpayer's assets in his or her possession and any assets that are to become due the taxpayer including wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, workers' compensation benefits, disability benefits, pension or retirement payments, and interest less a fee to cover costs of no more than $6 per month. The taxpayer may obtain relief from the garnishment by paying the total amount owed.

Beginning January 1, 2012, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education must provide the Director of Revenue, at least annually, the name and Social Security number of each certificate holder or applicant for a certificate of license to teach in Missouri. The Director of the Department of Revenue must at least annually a year verify that all income taxes have been paid and state income tax returns have been filed in the past three years and send a notice to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the certificate holder or applicant if a person has not paid his or her taxes or filed the tax returns. A certificate holder's license will be suspended within 90 days after the notice, and an applicant's license cannot be issued unless: the taxes are paid; an arrangement has been made with the Department of Revenue to pay the taxes; the taxes were paid under protest; or the tax liability is found to be reasonably disputed.

The Director of the Department of Revenue and the Commissioner of the Office of Administration may enter into a reciprocal agreement with the federal government or any other state to offset vendor and contractor payments for any type of debt owed to the state. Currently, the department has a reciprocal agreement with the United States Treasury to offset income tax overpayments.

The provisions regarding the tax amnesty contain an emergency clause.

The act specifies that any personal identifying information that is utilized in a voluntary registry of persons with health-related ailments created by a public governmental body to assist these individuals during a disaster or emergency is not to be considered a public record under the Open Meetings and Records Law, commonly known as the Sunshine Law. However, a governmental body cannot deny a lawful request for the identifying information from any law enforcement agency or public governmental body providing emergency services.

The act requires a distressed municipality in St. Louis County to provide a minimum level of public services including: emergency telephone service; police protection 24 hours per day, seven days a week; construction code enforcement review; adequate street maintenance; weekly waste and recycling collection; and requires a balanced annual budget and an annual audit. A distressed municipality is any city, town, or village designated as Group B under the provisions of law regarding the pooling of sales tax revenues for St. Louis County. If a distressed municipality fails to provide any of the required services or meet the budget and audit requirements, the governing body of the county can petition an appropriate court to withhold the Group B sales tax revenue until the noncompliant municipality develops and adopts a plan to provide all the required services or to authorize the county to administer the Group B sales tax revenue on behalf of the municipality to provide the services.

This act authorizes cities, towns, and villages located in any county of the state to seek voter approval for the imposition of a fee on residential property to fund the repair or replacement of water lines on that property. The fee would be imposed for the repair or replacement of water service lines providing water service to residential properties having four or fewer dwelling units located within the city, town, or village. The fee cannot exceed one dollar per month.

Any city, town, or village which imposes the water service line fee may, by ordinance, provide for the administration of the program and define the terms "repair" and "water service line".

This act specifies how duty-related death benefits will be funded for the Missouri Local Government Employees' Retirement System (LAGERS). In the same way as when a disability benefit is due to a member of the LAGERS system, when a duty-related death benefit is due to a beneficiary, the accrued service pension reserve will be calculated, as of the effective date of the disability benefit. Contributions from political subdivisions for duty-related death benefits will be held in the Casualty Reserve Fund. Political subdivisions that participate in LAGERS will have a portion of their contributions for duty-related death benefits determined on a one-year term basis in the same way that their contribution for a portion of disability benefits is determined.

Under current law, the Cities of Springfield, Joplin, and St. Joseph, as well as any cities in Jasper or Butler County may seek voter approval for the imposition of a sales tax of up to one-half of one percent for economic development purposes. Butler County and Buchanan County may also seek voter approval for the imposition of such a tax. Current law provides a non-inclusive list of economic development projects for which revenues derived from the tax may be used. This act would allow local economic development sales tax revenues to also be used for the construction of job training and educational facilities.

This act allows the governing body of any municipality to enter into loan agreements, or sell, lease, or mortgage municipal property to private entities for the development of a technology business facility project. Transactions involving the lease or rental of such properties will be exempt from state and local sales taxes and any leasehold interests on such properties will not be subject to property taxes. The act allows municipalities to sell or otherwise dispose of municipal property to private entities for technology business facility projects provided that the terms and methods utilized reasonably protect the economic well being of the municipality. Any private entity which transfers property to the municipality for purposes of a technology business facility project will reserve the right to request that the municipality transfer such property back to the entity at no cost.

The act increases the number of years before a newly constructed residential property which has never been occupied is assessed for property taxation from the second year following the year the construction on the home was completed to the fourth year.

The act provides state and local sales and use tax exemptions for all machinery, equipment, computers, electrical energy, gas, water and other utilities including telecommunication services used in new data storage center facilities. The act also provides a state and local sales and use tax exemption for purchases of tangible personal property for the construction, repair, or remodeling of a new data storage center facility. In order to receive the sales tax exemption provided for new data storage center facilities, an application must be made to the department of economic development for certification. Such application must show that the project will result in at least five million dollars of new facility investment over a three year period.

The act also creates a state and local sales and use tax exemption for existing data storage center facilities for all machinery, equipment, computers, electrical energy, gas, water and other utilities including telecommunication services. The exemption will only apply to the increase in expenditures for utilities over the previous year's expenditures. The exemptions for tangible property will be available only on the increase in expenditures over the average of the previous three years expenditures. In order to receive the sales tax exemption provided for existing data storage center facilities, an application must be made to the department of economic development for certification. Such application must show that the project will result in at least one million dollars of new facility investment over a one year period.

The department of economic development and the department of revenue are authorized to conduct random audits to ensure compliance with the requirements for state and local sales and use tax exemptions authorized under the act.

The act provides that water providers and owners of premises will not be liable for civil or criminal damages for termination of water and sewer services for delinquent payment.

The act provides that any person employed by, or on behalf of, a property owner to represent the property owner in a proceeding appealing the assessment of the owner's property will not be required to have a real estate appraiser license or certificate.

Eligible expenses for brownfield remediation tax credits are expanded to include environmental insurance premiums and backfill of areas where contaminated soil excavation occurs.

The act authorizes cities, towns, villages, and sewer and water supply districts to seek voter approval for the imposition of a fee on residential property to fund the repair or replacement of lateral sewer service lines on that property. The fee would be imposed for the repair or replacement of lateral sewer service lines providing service to residential properties having four or fewer dwelling units located within the city, town, village, or sewer or water supply district. The fee cannot exceed $4 per month.

Any city, town, or village which imposes the line fee may, by ordinance, provide for the administration of the program and define the terms "repair" and "lateral sewer service line".

JASON ZAMKUS