In order to enter into a voluntary disclosure agreement, the City of Boulder requires that the company provide certain information, representations and warranties as follows:
- Comprehensively describe the Company's business, including what the business sells, the services it provides, the date the Company or its predecessor started conducting business in Boulder, any change of ownership, including change in the form of ownership and any other business facts that might have a bearing on tax liability;
- An estimate of City tax liability for previous tax periods; explain the reason or the change in circumstances that has caused the Company to seek this agreement. Describe the nature of the contact of the Company with the City of Boulder that has determined tax nexus;
- A disclosure with respect to whether the company has or has not collected City sales/use tax and if and where was it remitted;
- A representation that the company has not been previously contacted by the City of Boulder nor the Multistate Tax Commission (MTC) nexus program;
- A representation that the failure to file is not the result of fraud or gross negligence on the part of the company (of course the City is still willing to negotiate a settlement, however, not under these standard terms).
The standard terms for voluntary disclosure are as follows:
- The company must request an agreement for voluntary disclosure, which will include all the information in the above 5 steps. This request will be included as part of the final agreement, therefore, any material misstatements or omissions will make the agreement voidable by the City;
- The City normally requires that the company perform a self-audit, which would cover the past three years or the period of time that the company was not in compliance with the City's sales/use tax code, if that period is shorter. The self-audit is subject to a City Auditor's review;
- Penalty may be waived depending on the circumstances, however, the interest will not be waived;
- The Company will, within 30 days of the effective date, complete and return all licenses and registrations and will pay all fees required by the City of Boulder in order to do business in the City;
- The Company will maintain these required licenses and registrations until they cease to do any business in the City;
- The Company will within 60 days of the effective date, remit any and all sales/use taxes including any related interest and penalty due per this agreement;
- The company will continue to collect and remit sales/use tax until they cease to do any business in Boulder.
- The Company agrees to make all its books and records available to the City of its agent upon reasonable notice to verify the factual representations made by the Company in this agreement or in any document referred to in this agreement;
- So long as the Company is not in breach of this agreement, the City agrees not to audit the period prior to the effective date.