Tax Appeals in Mississippi

Notice of Assessment

Once a field audit is completed, the Mississippi Department of Revenue (the "DOR") will send the taxpayer a notice of audit results.  This letter is referred to as the Notice of Assessment.  In many cases, there will be no change to the reported tax liability. In other cases, the auditors find additional tax liability based upon their findings from the audit.

Once the Notice of Assessment is mailed or delivered to the taxpayer, the taxpayer has sixty (60) days from the date of the notice to pay the tax liability.  If the taxpayer disagrees with the Notice of Assessment and is unable to work out the issues with the field auditor, the taxpayer has sixty (60) days from the date of the Notice of Assessment to request an appeal of the assessment and request a hearing before the Review Board.

The sixty-day period begins to run from the date of the Notice of Assessment regardless of whether the taxpayer is in continued discussions with the filed auditor

Review Board Hearing

In the request for a hearing, the taxpayer must provide the following information: address, business name, ID number and a description of the requested relief.  The taxpayer must specify what tax assessment is being protested and the amount of the assessment.  At the hearing the taxpayer is not limited to the information included in the written protest and may bring any relevant information to the hearing.

Once the written request is received by the DOR, the Review Board will mail the taxpayer a notice of the date and time of the hearing.  The taxpayer has ten (10) days from the date of the hearing notice to advise the Review Board if the date and time are inconvenient.

The hearing before the Review Board is informal.  There are no rules of evidence.  At least three (3) members of the DOR Staff will make up the Review Board Panel.  Ashley May is the chairman of the Review Board and sits on the three-member panel.  Representatives from the audit department will not sit on the Review Board, but may attend to explain the audit procedure and results.  A lawyer will not represent the DOR during the Review Board hearing.

At the Review Board hearing, the taxpayer will have the opportunity to explain to the Review Board why the taxpayer disagrees with the audit and assessment.  After consideration of the facts presented at the hearing, the Review Board will mail the taxpayer and its representative an order of its decision.  This generally takes about a month and will advise the taxpayer of the action taken by the Review Board.

Strategically, a taxpayer should not concede any justified position to the Review Board because the taxpayer has the ability to settle any claim during any portion of the review process.  If the taxpayer is not satisfied with the order of the Review Board, the taxpayer has sixty (60) days from the date of the order to make a written request for a hearing before the Board of Tax Appeals.

Board of Tax Appeals Hearing

The Board of Tax Appeals consists of three members appointed by the Governor.  Presently, the three members of the Board of Tax Appeals are: Janet Mann, chairman, who is an active certified public accountant; James C. Wilkinson, associate member, who served as the tax collector and assessor of Alcorn County for twenty-one (21) years; and Marcus Martin, associate member, who has twenty-eight (28) years of public accounting experience.

The Board of Tax Appeals hearing is also informal.  There are no applicable rules of evidence; however, a lawyer will represent the DOR at this stage in the appeals process.  Generally, each side is afforded forty-five (45) minutes to put on its case.