Amended Report is Not a Refund Claim 

Tax Alert

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania en banc unanimously held that an amended report filed by a taxpayer could not be considered a petition for a refund of CNI Tax. Quest Diagnostics Venture, LLC v. Commonwealth, No. 782 F.R. 2012 (Pa. Commw. June 9, 2015) (en banc). The tax statute provides for filing petitions for refund and a regulation governs amended reports and states that an amended report does not constitute a petition for a refund. 72 P.S. §3003; Pa. Code §151.4. The taxpayer filed an amended report, but did not file a petition for refund within the statutory three-year refund. The court held that the regulation was a reasonable interpretation of the statute and under its plain terms, an amended report did not constitute a petition for refund in because the amended report lacked information that must be included with a complete refund claim. Neither could the taxpayer rely on the doctrines of estoppel or laches, as the record showed no actions by the department that might have mislead the taxpayer into not filing a timely petition for refund.  

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Authors

Joseph C. Bright

Member

jbright@cozen.com

(215) 665-2053

Dan A. Schulder

Member

dschulder@cozen.com

(717) 703-5905

Cheryl A. Upham

Vice Chair, Tax

cupham@cozen.com

(215) 665-4193

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To discuss any questions you may have regarding the opinion discussed in this Alert, or how it may apply to your particular circumstances, please contact: Joseph C. Bright at jbright@cozen.com or 215.665.2053, Dan A. Schulder at dschulder@cozen.com or 717.703.5905, Cheryl A. Upham at cupham@cozen.com or 215.665.4193 or Jaime Reichardt atjreichardt@cozen.com or 215.665.3729.