Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Steve Jasper provided comments for an article discussing a recent decision by the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruling that, although a company entered several agreements with the Tennessee Department of Revenue (DOR) to extend the statutory period of limitations for tax assessments and refunds, those extension agreements did not apply to extend the one-year deadline to file litigation for a refund claim already submitted to the DOR.
Steve notes that the procedural trap is a nuance of Tennessee statutes that he often warns about, though he said he didn’t mean that the DOR intended to set such a trap. He said that “although taxpayers may understandably believe that they don’t need to file litigation while they’re in ongoing conversations with the department, they do need to either file before the statute of limitations expires or have that specific deadline extended.”
Steve continued saying that “to the DOR’s credit, it sometimes grants claims after the deadline if it determines that the refund is owed, but he noted that the taxpayer has no recourse if the department ultimately denies the claim and the taxpayer has not filed suit within the deadline or had the deadline extended.”
The full article, “Tennessee Court Says Refund Suit Was Untimely,” was published July 22 by State Tax Notes and is available online (subscription required).