Is There a Faster, Cheaper Way to Collect Back Taxes?

The state tax gap—the difference between the true tax liabilities owed to a state and the amount voluntarily submitted to revenue agencies—is possibly the most stubborn and perplexing problem facing tax administrators. For decades, revenue commissioners have tried to close the gap through audits and enforcement sweeps, but the process is slow, costly, and uncertain.

Janette Lohman, a former director of the Missouri Department of Revenue, believes there is a way to collect more delinquent taxes faster, cheaper, and with less hostility: a strategy she describes as “prospective voluntary disclosure.” The states generally allow delinquent businesses to voluntarily come forward and pay their back taxes plus interest for a specified look-back period, but Lohman has proposed a process that allows delinquent taxpayers to submit their taxes on a going-forward basis without paying any back taxes or penalties.

On this episode of Talking Tax, Bloomberg Tax senior reporter Michael J. Bologna caught up with Lohman to discuss her efforts in Missouri to boost compliance using prospective voluntary disclosure. Lohman, a tax partner in the St. Louis office of Thompson Coburn LLP, recently presented her strategy during the annual meeting of the Federation of Tax Administrators.

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