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BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Secretary of Revenue Tim Barfield unveiled on Monday details of a two-month tax amnesty program for individual and business taxpayers who have fallen behind on their tax debts.

LA Tax Amnesty 2013: A Fresh Start will run from September 23 through November 22. It offers delinquent taxpayers and non-filers the chance to bring their accounts up to date by paying all overdue taxes, with a waiver of all penalties and 50 percent of the interest owed.

“Many times, people get behind and don’t know where to start,” Barfield said during a presentation to the Baton Rouge Press Club. “The goal here is to make it as easy as possible. Let’s help them right the ship.”

Amnesty is available for the following taxes and tax periods:

• All taxes administered by the Louisiana Department of Revenue (LDR) except for motor fuel taxes and penalties for failure to submit information reports that are not based on an underpayment of tax


• Taxes due prior to January 1, 2013, for which LDR has issued an individual or business proposed assessment, notice of assessment bill, notice, or demand of payment not later than May 21, 2013


• Taxes for taxable periods that began before January 1, 2013.

The Fresh Start program is available to taxpayers who have:

• Failed to file a tax return or report


• Failed to report all income or all tax, interested and penalties that were due


• Claimed incorrect credits or deductions


• Misrepresented or omitted an tax due


• Become subject to audit, or are in administrative or judicial litigation

Taxpayers involved in criminal investigation or criminal litigation for taxes administered by LDR are not eligible for the Fresh Start program.

Once the program begins on September 23, taxpayers will be able to submit amnesty applications electronically at www.LDRTaxAmnesty.com. The average time to complete an application is five minutes.

“We have gone to great lengths to make this a user-friendly application,” Barfield said. “We’ve already had thousands of people visit the website, which is a great sign.”

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Visit the LDR Flickr page for more downloadable photos from Secretary Barfield’s appearance at the Baton Rouge Press Club.