(b) Payment of tax. Each petroleum business shall pay to the commissioner of taxation and finance with the filing of the return or returns the tax imposed by this article during the period covered by the return. Such tax imposed on any petroleum business which is a corporation and which ceases to exercise its franchise or to be subject to the tax imposed by this article shall be payable to the commissioner at the time the return is required to be filed, provided such tax of a petroleum business which is a domestic corporation and which continues to possess its franchise shall be subject to adjustment as the circumstances may require; all other taxes of any such petroleum business, which pursuant to the foregoing provisions of this section would otherwise be payable subsequent to the time such return is required to be filed, shall nevertheless be payable at such time.

(c) Special provisions regarding sole proprietorships.--With respect to any petroleum business which is a sole proprietorship:

(1) the return for such petroleum business where the proprietor has died shall be made and filed by his executor, administrator, or other person charged with his property, and

(2) the return for such petroleum business where the proprietor is unable to make a return by reason of a disability shall be made and filed by his conservator, committee, fiduciary or other person charged with the care of his person or property (other than a receiver in possession of only a part of his property), or by his duly authorized agent.

(d) Estates and trusts.--The return for a petroleum business which is an estate or trust shall be made and filed by the fiduciary.

(e) Joint fiduciaries.--If two or more fiduciaries are acting jointly on behalf of a petroleum business, the return may be made by any one of them.

(f) Notice of qualification as receiver, etc.--Every receiver, trustee in bankruptcy, assignee for benefit of creditors of, or other fiduciary for a petroleum business shall give notice of his qualification as such to the commissioner of taxation and finance, as may be required by regulation.

(g) Certification.--Every return shall have annexed thereto a certification by the president, vice-president, treasurer, assistant treasurer, chief accounting officer or any other officer of the petroleum business duly authorized so to act where such petroleum business is a corporation, or of the individual or one of the individuals, or members of the partnership making the same where the petroleum business is an unincorporated business, to the effect that the statements contained therein are true. The fact that an individual's name is signed on a certification of the return shall be prima facie evidence that such individual is authorized to sign and certify the return on behalf of the petroleum business. Blank forms of returns shall be furnished by the commissioner of taxation and finance, on application, but failure to secure such a blank shall not release any petroleum business from the obligation of making any return required by this article.

(h) Action by attorney general.--An action may be brought at any time by the attorney general at the instance of the commissioner of taxation and finance, in the name of the state, to compel the filing of returns due under this article.

(i) Returns and records.--Returns shall be preserved for five years, and thereafter until the commissioner of taxation and finance orders them to be destroyed. Every petroleum business subject to tax under this article shall keep the records and documents referred to in subdivision one of section two hundred eighty-six of this chapter and such other records of its business in such form as the commissioner may require; moreover, the records required of transporters and storers under such subdivision shall apply with the same force and effect to transporters and storers of any product included in the measure of the tax imposed by this article. All such records shall be preserved for a period of three years, except that the commissioner may consent to their destruction within that period or may require that they be kept longer.