Rhode Island launches ‘tax amnesty’ website

PROVIDENCE – With less than a month until its Dec. 1 launch, Rhode Island’s tax amnesty program has launched a special website for tax delinquents to learn more about it.

The R.I. Division of Taxation is offering certain taxpayers the option to pay the full amount of overdue taxes plus 75 percent of any interest due. Qualifying participants will not have to pay the remaining interest and avoid civil or criminal penalties, according to the new website.

State tax collectors have also started mailing amnesty-related paperwork and opened a phone bank to field questions about the program.

The amnesty period will run from Dec. 1 through Feb. 15.

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“We want to give taxpayers and their advisers plenty of time, well in advance, to learn more about the amnesty, how it will work, and how it will apply to them,” said Neena S. Savage, state tax administrator.

The division has begun mailing out more than 60,000 information packets, matching how many taxpayers it estimates have outstanding balances.

The program includes the following taxes:

  • Corporate income tax
  • Estate tax
  • Fiduciary income tax
  • Personal income tax
  • Sales tax
  • Use tax
  • Cigarette and tobacco products taxes
  • Employer taxes – unemployment, temporary disability insurance

Eli Sherman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Sherman@PBN.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.