The State Tax Commission has made it easier for federal retirees to secure claims on the state income taxes they believe are owed to them, a spokeswoman for the commission said.
But filing a claim will not ensure that the federal retirees will get back the state income taxes they have paid. That's being left up to the courts to decide.A lawsuit pending in 3rd District Court, based on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, is expected to determine whether Utah unfairly collected taxes from federal retirees while state and local government workers were exempted from paying.
Now, federal retirees who want to protect their claims to refunds for income taxes paid in 1985 and later can fill out a simplified form that asks only for their name, Social Security numbers, addresses and signatures, according to commission spokeswoman Janice Perry.
The regular form used to amend prior tax returns that includes a calculation of how much was either over- or underpaid will have to be filled out if the retirees win their lawsuit against the state, she said.
"Retirees have no guarantee they will be receiving a refund, so they don't have to go to the trouble of filling out an amended return," Perry said. "It's a way to ease the burden on the retiree."
Earlier this year, the Legislature extended the deadline for filing amended 1985 income tax returns. Although federal retirees have had to pay income taxes in Utah for decades, the state has a three-year statute of limitations.
"This is what we've been suggesting all along," said Ogden attorney Jack Helgesen, who is representing federal retirees. "This is the only fair way to handle people."
Helgesen, who is awaiting a decision on his motion to certify the state's estimated 35,000 federal retirees as a class so any decision made will apply to each individual who paid state income taxes on his or her federal government pensions.