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House Bill 2048 |
House Author: Lyne |
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Effective: 9-1-11 |
Senate Sponsor: Deuell |
Current law authorizes a municipality, if a person fails to file a required tax report relating to the collection of a municipal hotel occupancy tax, to conduct an audit of each hotel for which the person did not file the required report to determine the amount of tax due. House Bill 2048 amends the Tax Code to grant a county the same authority to audit a hotel for which a person fails to file a tax report relating to the collection of a county hotel occupancy tax applicable to that hotel as required. The bill authorizes the municipality or county, as applicable, to perform such an audit directly or to contract with another person to perform the audit on an hourly rate or fixed-fee basis but requires the municipality or county to give the person required to collect the hotel occupancy tax at least 30 days' written notice before conducting that audit.
If a person failed either to file a tax report relating to the collection of a municipal hotel occupancy tax or to pay the tax when due, previous law authorized the municipal attorney or other attorney acting for the municipality to file a suit to collect the unpaid tax or enjoin the person's hotel operations in the municipality until the tax is paid or the report filed and to audit a hotel to determine the amount of tax due. House Bill 2048 instead vests that authority in the municipality generally rather than in the individual attorney. The bill makes a person's liability to the municipality for the costs of an audit contingent on the municipality having not received a disbursement from the comptroller of public accounts related to the person's concurrent state tax delinquency and makes the person's liability to the municipality for a specified penalty contingent on the tax having been delinquent for at least one complete municipal fiscal quarter.
The bill requires a municipality or county to notify and submit the relevant audit information to the comptroller if, as a result of an audit, the municipality or county obtains information showing a failure to collect or pay when due both the state hotel occupancy tax and the municipal or county hotel occupancy tax, as applicable, on a paying hotel guest. The bill requires the comptroller to review the information submitted and determine whether to proceed with collection and enforcement efforts. If the information results in the collection of a delinquent state hotel occupancy tax and the assessment has become administratively final, the comptroller must distribute a percentage of the amount collected to the municipality or county, as applicable, to defray the cost of the municipal or county audit.
The bill requires the comptroller, not later than the last day of the month following a calendar quarter, to compute the amount of revenue, excluding penalties, interest, and amounts paid under protest, derived from the collection of state hotel occupancy taxes that resulted from information received from a municipality or county indicating a municipal or county hotel occupancy tax delinquency concurrent with a state hotel occupancy tax delinquency and to issue a warrant drawn on the general revenue fund in the amount of 20 percent of the revenue computed to the municipality or county that provided the documentation or other information.