GovGuam forced to pay refunds on time
GUAM taxpayers may no longer have to wait years to get their tax refunds now that a federal judge ruled in their favor, forcing the government of Guam to end the practice of not paying tax refunds on time and expediting select refunds arbitrarily.
A status conference and motion hearing for summary judgment was held in the District Court yesterday before Judge Consuelo Bland Marshall who ruled in favor of taxpayers Jeffrey F. Paeste, Rea Mializa O. Paeste, Glenn Zapanta and Sharon M. Zapanta. The individuals filed a class action lawsuit in April of last year against GovGuam for their failure to pay out tax refunds in a timely manner. The lawsuit sought the court’s intervention in imposing change in the government’s practice.
Lawyers for the taxpayers have also argued that the government had no real system in place when it came to expediting tax refunds, indicating they arbitrarily selected taxpayers to receive the expedited funds. The government this year suspended its expedited tax refund program which afforded tax returns to those claiming emergencies such as medical, death or funeral expenses and other hardships.
In response to the case, the government claimed they can withhold the payment of refunds indefinitely if they choose to because there are no laws or regulations that govern the timing of refunds. According to the government, neither the Organic Act nor the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) obligates them to pay tax refunds on time.
“They also contend that even if the payment of refunds is mandatory, the lack of an explicit statutory deadline allows them to withhold payment of refunds indefinitely,” Attorney Ignacio Aguigui stated in court documents last week.
All that may change once a permanent injunction is crafted as soon as next month. According to Judge Marshall, a proposed permanent injunction must be filed by Sept. 21. The injunction would determine how the local government would go about paying tax refunds – whether by setting aside funding or imposing a precise deadline as short as six months.
Comments
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Not so fast Dave!
Balanced budget requirements seem more likely to produce accounting ingenuity than genuinely balanced budgets
hasta
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