§1580. Suspension and interruption of prescription

A. The prescription running against any state tax, license, excise, interest, penalty, or other charge shall be suspended by any of the following:

(1) The secretary's action in assessing any such amounts in the manner provided by law.

(2) The filing of a summary proceeding in court.

(3) The filing of any pleading, either by the secretary or by a taxpayer, with the Board of Tax Appeals or any state or federal court.

(4) The filing of a false or fraudulent return, as defined in R.S. 47:1605(B)(2), provided that suspended prescription shall begin to run again upon notice to the secretary of the filing of the false or fraudulent return or upon the subsequent filing of a return which is not false or fraudulent.

(5) Repealed by Acts 1997, No. 1348, §2, eff. July 15, 1997.

B. The running of such prescription shall also be suspended prior to the lapse of the prescriptive period set out in the Constitution of Louisiana as hereinafter provided:

(1) For any period by means of a written agreement between the taxpayer and the secretary of the Department of Revenue; or

(2) With respect to income tax, for any period by means of a written agreement entered into between a taxpayer and the United States Internal Revenue Service suspending the prescription of federal income tax; or

(3) With respect to income tax, for any period from the time of the commencement of an audit of a taxpayer by the United States Internal Revenue Service until one year from the time the secretary of the Department of Revenue is notified by said taxpayer or the federal government of an agreed change to the taxpayer's United States income tax return.

(4) With respect to bankruptcy, for any period from the time the taxpayer files for bankruptcy until six months after the bankruptcy case is closed.

(5)(a) By the filing of a claim for refund for the period for which a refund is requested, which shall suspend prescription for the same period in order for the secretary to determine whether the taxpayer owes any other liability under the provisions of R.S. 47:1622.

(b) The collector may not assert a collection remedy against a taxpayer for a tax that would have been prescribed but for this Paragraph except through a defense, answer, or reconventional demand in offset of an action concerning the claim for refund.

(c) The provisions of Subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph governing the suspension of prescription shall not apply in the following circumstances:

(i) The claim for refund referenced in this Paragraph has been granted.

(ii) The claim for refund referenced in this Paragraph is denied and the refund denial is final and nonappealable.

(iii) A judgment of the Board of Tax Appeals concerning the refund referenced in this Paragraph has become final.

C.(1) The failure to file any return required to be filed by this Subtitle shall interrupt the running of prescription, and prescription shall not commence to run again until the subsequent filing of such return. Once prescription commences to run, the tax, license, excise, interest, penalty, or other charge which is reported on such return shall prescribe in three years after the thirty-first day of December of the year of the filing of the return. However, if a taxpayer who does not file a tax return required to be filed by this Subtitle later becomes responsible for the filing of such a return due to a final court decision rendering a transaction or other activity as taxable, and the laws, regulation, or jurisprudence of this state previously classified that transaction, or other activity as nontaxable, this provision shall not apply and prescription shall run as if the taxpayer had timely filed the return.

(2) The interruption of the running of prescription due to the failure to file a return reporting a state tax shall not apply to any state tax periods for which the secretary and the taxpayer have entered into a valid and enforceable voluntary disclosure agreement.

(3) The provisions of this Subsection shall apply to use tax returns only when the amount due exceeds five hundred dollars for the tax levied.

Acts 1983, No. 396, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 1984; Acts 1985, No. 761, §1, eff. Aug. 1, 1985; Acts 1997, No. 658, §2; Acts 1997, No. 957, §1, eff. July 10, 1997; Acts 1997, No. 957, §1, eff. July 10, 1997 (Applicable to all taxpayers in bankruptcy or who file for bankruptcy and to all taxable persons that have not prescribed for any reason whatsoever as of July 10, 1997); Acts 1997, No. 1348, §§1, 2, eff. July 15, 1997 (Applicable to return, for all taxable periods beginning after December 31, 1997); Acts 2001, No. 103, §1, eff. July 1, 2001; Acts 2001, No. 1167, §1, eff. June 29, 2001; Acts 2015, No. 210, §1, eff. June 23, 2015.

NOTE: SEE ACTS 1985, NO. 761, §2.

NOTE: See S.C.R. No. 32 of the 1996 1st Ex. Sess. re legislative intent.