| Volume Number: 30
Category(s): MOTOR VEHICLES |
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| Opinion Issued May 23, 2014 | |
| ASHLEY BOURBEAU | |
| VS. | |
| DIVISION OF MOTOR VEHICLES | |
| (CC-13-0554) | |
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Claimant appeared pro se. Gretchen A. Murphy, Assistant Attorney General, for Respondent. |
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| PER CURIAM:
Claimant, Ashley Bourbeau, brought this action to recover taxes paid to the State of West Virginia for a vehicle purchased in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Court is of the opinion to deny this claim for reasons more fully stated below. Claimant purchased a vehicle in August 2012, from a dealership in Massachusetts. Claimant testified that she made the purchase in Massachusetts because she was attending college there. Claimant stated that instead of paying the 6.25% Massachusetts sales tax, she opted to send her vehicle home to her mother and pay the 5% West Virginia sales tax. Claimant stated that she preferred this arrangement because she had time left on her current insurance policy, which was issued in West Virginia. Claimant also stated that parking in Massachusetts presented a burden and that it was easier to keep the vehicle at her mother’s home in West Virginia. In July 2013, Claimant chose to take her vehicle to school with her in Massachusetts. When Claimant registered the vehicle in Massachusetts she was forced to pay the sales tax that she chose not to pay at the time of the purchase. Claimant paid the sales tax and promptly sought a tax rebate in West Virginia for refund of the 5% sales tax paid almost one year earlier. The West Virginia Tax Department refused to grant Claimant a tax rebate, because the law requires that a tax abatement be filed within six (6) months of paying the tax. Claimant did not file for the abatement until approximately nine (9) months after the sales tax was originally paid. Claimant asks the Court to recommend an award to the Legislature in the amount of the 5% sales tax paid to West Virginia based on her ignorance of the law. Respondent argues that it correctly denied the tax abatement because Claimant did not file until a full three (3) months past the filing period. Respondent also contends that Claimant correctly paid the sales tax in West Virginia. W. Va. Code § 17A-10-12 states, with emphasis added, that “[w]henever the department through error collects any fee not required to be paid hereunder the same shall be refunded to the person paying the same upon application therefor made within six months after the date of such payment.” In the instant case, the Court finds that Claimant simply has no claim for the sales tax paid to the State of West Virginia; her vehicle was registered in W. Va. When the tax was paid. The law is clear that a person must make a tax abatement claim within six months. The Claimant did not make a claim within the six months. Moreover, assessment of the tax in the instant case was properly based on the in state registration at the time. The inquiry stops here. The Claimant’s ignorance of this law is of no consequence. Based on the foregoing, it is the opinion of the Court of Claims that the Claimant’s claim should be, and is hereby, denied. Claim disallowed. |
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| Summary: |
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