DOR Announces “Helping Hoosiers” COVID-19 Relief Services

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DOR Announces “Helping Hoosiers” COVID-19 Relief Services

Supporting Hoosier Taxpayers During the Health Emergency

INDIANAPOLIS – Today, the Indiana Department of Revenue (DOR) outlined temporary taxpayer relief initiatives recently implemented to support Hoosiers during the statewide COVID-19 health emergency.

“Now is the time where we have to find new ways to support our fellow Hoosiers and assist them during this challenging situation,” explained DOR Commissioner Bob Grennes. “The entire DOR team cares deeply about the work we do and serving Hoosiers, and this is a time when we double down on our commitment to serving.

“Our team has been aggressively looking for ways to implement flexibility across all service functions while preserving revenue collection operations, which are vital to funding state services provided to Hoosiers – all with the goal of helping our fellow Hoosiers. We believe our ‘Helping Hoosiers’ service enhancements do exactly that.”

DOR’s COVID-19 service enhancements include:

Filing, Payment & Registration Extensions

  • Extending certain individual and corporate filing and payment deadlines.
  • Extending certain motor carrier permitting, registration and International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) filing and payment requirements.
  • Extending expiring Registered Retail Merchant Certificates (RRMC) to June 30, 2020.
  • Implementing case-specific penalty adjustments for late filing and payments.

Expedited Refund Processing

  • Continuing all tax processing, ID protection, fraud detection, and refund processing operations.
  • Reallocating resources to accelerate certain refund case reviews and approvals.

Debt Collection Relief

  • Suspending the creation of most tax filing bills, new warrants, and liens. Prior audit and legal bills will continue to be issued to protect statutes of limitation.
  • Suspending creation of new sheriff and collection agency collection cases.
  • Suspending outbound collection call activity to focus additional resources on assisting Hoosiers with payment support and other customer-care questions.
  • Suspending creation of new levy and garnishment involuntary collection actions.
  • Canceling current levy and garnishment involuntary collection actions.
  • Offering installment payment plan agreements for up to 60 months.
  • Working with Hoosiers to modify existing installment payment agreements.
  • Moving an existing payment plan due dates to July 15, 2020, upon request.
  • Suspending payment plan terminations for missed payments.

Audit & Legal Protest Relief

  • Suspending all in-person field audit work and working collaboratively with all entities currently under audit via correspondence and teleconference to meet statutory requirements.
  • Suspending the non-filer desk audit letter distributions.
  • Modifying desk audit record verification requirements (including Schedule C expense verification).
  • Suspending all in-person protest hearings.
  • Extending the current 60-day legal protest window an additional 60 days for a total of 120 days.
  • Extending the current 30-day protest rehearing window an additional 60 days for a total of 90 days.
  • Adjusting all legal protest final decisions to delay triggering of downstream statutes of limitation.
  • Allowing the use of a valid/current Federal Power of Attorney form in lieu of Indiana’s State Power of Attorney forms in certain circumstances.
  • Eliminating all possible remaining requirements for wet signatures.

Hardship & Offer-In-Comprise (OIC) Support

  • Relaxing certain record submission requirements for new case creation.
  • Extending the time frame for record submission on all pending hardship cases until July 31, 2020.
  • Extending new hardship and OIC case processing deadlines.
  • Supporting all requests to adjust payment plan terms.

Customer Service Options

  • Except for in-person services, all tax processing systems and operations are operating smoothly. Customer Service team members are here to help via phone, correspondence, email and online services Monday through Friday 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. local time.
  • Call DOR’s individual customer service line at 317-232-2240.
  • Call a specific District Office using the contact information at dor.in.gov/3390.htm.
  • Call DOR’s Motor Carrier Services at 317-615-7200.
  • Contact a specific DOR business unit using a list of phone numbers and email addresses available at dor.in.gov/3325.htm.
  • Email DOR using the online form at dor.in.gov/3392.htm.
  • Take advantage of our online services by visiting dor.in.gov/4331.htm.

Tax Policy Assistance

  • Contact the DOR Tax Policy team to assist with any questions or needed clarifications by emailing taxpolicy@dor.in.gov.

“We recommend Hoosiers continue to comply with all tax filing and payment requirements, be responsive to DOR correspondence and to contact our team if they have questions or need assistance,” added Commissioner Grennes. “This situation is very fluid and we will continue to look for ways to help Hoosiers during this very difficult time.”

Any changes to this guidance, additional modifications to normal operations or changes to tax filing and payment deadlines will be posted on DOR’s website, as well as DOR’s social media accounts.

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