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Senate Bill 934 |
Senate Author: Williams |
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Effective: 9-1-11 |
House Sponsor: Hilderbran |
Senate Bill 934 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to authorize the prosecution of criminal conspiracy, engaging in organized criminal activity, and money laundering offenses in any county in which venue is proper under the Tax Code for the offense if the prosecution is based on a criminal offense classified as a felony under the Tax Code.
The bill authorizes the state, in the trial of an offense under the Tax Code or a tax-related offense under the Penal Code, to file a written request with the court in which the indictment or information is pending for the court to make affirmative findings regarding the commission of tax fraud. The bill requires the state to provide the defendant with a copy of its request before the trial and establishes the grounds under which the court must make the requested affirmative findings and enter the findings in the papers in the case.
The bill amends the Government Code to authorize the comptroller of public accounts to accept money or property under a federal equitable sharing program and to require the comptroller, in so doing, to comply with federal program requirements. The bill entitles the comptroller to obtain from the Department of Public Safety criminal history record information maintained by the department that the comptroller believes is necessary for the enforcement and administration of Tax Code provisions relating to motor fuel taxes.
The bill amends the Penal Code to include within the meaning of "proceeds," as it pertains to the offense of money laundering, funds acquired, derived, produced, or realized through the failure to pay to the comptroller the taxes collected by a person. The bill expands the conditions that constitute the offense of engaging in organized criminal activity to include the commission of or the conspiracy to commit any offense classified as a felony under the Tax Code with the specified intent.
The bill amends the Tax Code to make Penal Code provisions relating to criminal conspiracy, a renunciation defense, and organized crime applicable to offenses prescribed by the Tax Code. The bill authorizes an investigator employed by the comptroller to investigate any criminal offense under the Tax Code or any criminal offense under any other law if the offense relates directly or indirectly to a tax, fee, penalty, or charge administered, collected, or enforced by the comptroller. The bill grants to an investigator commissioned by the comptroller as a peace officer the powers of a peace officer coextensive with the boundaries of the state and authorizes the comptroller or attorney general to use information or records made confidential by provisions of law relating to state taxation to enforce state or federal criminal laws.
The bill expands the tolling of the limitations period on the assessment, collection, or refunding of a state tax to include the period during which an indictment or information is pending for a felony offense related to the administration of the Tax Code against any taxpayer or any person personally liable or potentially personally liable for the payment of the tax. The bill expands the records retention requirement for all sellers and other persons storing, using, or consuming in the state a taxable item purchased from a retailer to include the retention of sales receipts, invoices, or equivalent records showing all sales and use tax, and any money represented to be sales and use tax, received or collected on each sale, rental, lease, or service transaction during each reporting period.
The bill revises and expands the range of penalties for the offense of failing to pay a collected tax and authorizes both the consideration of conduct under which tax is collected and not paid pursuant to one scheme or continuous course of conduct as one offense and the aggregation of the amounts in determining the grade of the offense. The bill makes the range of penalties for certain offenses relating to an exemption or resale certificate applicable to the offense of intentionally concealing, removing, or impairing the verity or legibility of such a certificate or unreasonably impeding the certificate's availability.
The bill makes it an offense to intentionally fail to produce in a timely manner records documenting the taxable sale of beer, wine, malt liquor, cigarettes, cigars, and tobacco products obtained using a resale certificate if the records are required to be kept and are requested by the comptroller in an investigation or audit. The bill establishes specific penalties for the offense and authorizes both the consideration of conduct that constitutes the offense, if it is related to one scheme or continuous course of conduct, as one offense and the aggregation of the amounts of tax avoided in determining the grade of the offense.
The bill authorizes the comptroller to retain for official use by the comptroller's criminal investigation division property seized by and forfeited to the state in the enforcement of the cigarette tax or the cigar and tobacco products tax as an alternative to selling that property at a public or private sale.
The bill authorizes the comptroller to photograph cigarettes or tobacco products seized in the enforcement of the cigarette tax or the cigar and tobacco products tax before their sale and specifies that the state, in a proceeding arising out of provisions relating to such taxes, is not required to produce the actual cigarettes or tobacco products. The photographs are admissible in evidence under rules of law governing the admissibility of photographs and are as admissible as are the cigarettes and tobacco products themselves.