§ 3.20.130. Interest and penalty

A. Taxes collected from a service user, or owed by a service user subject to Section 3.20. 100 of this chapter, which are not received by the tax administrator on or before the due dates provided in this chapter are delinquent and are subject to penalties and interest. Should the due date occur on a weekend or legal holiday, the return must be received by the tax administrator on the first regular working day following a Saturday/Sunday or legal holiday. A direct deposit, including electronic fund transfers and other similar methods of electronically exchanging monies between financial accounts, made by a service supplier in satisfaction of its obligations under this subsection shall be considered timely if the transfer is initiated on or before the due date, and the transfer settles into the city's account on or before the following business day.

B. If the person required to collect and/or remit the utility users tax fails to collect the tax (by failing to properly assess the tax on one or more services or charges on the customer's billing) or fails to remit the tax collected on or before the due date, or, in the case of a service user that fails to properly self-collect and remit the tax under Section 3.20.100 on or before the due date, the tax administrator shall attach a penalty for such delinquencies or deficiencies at the rate of five percent of the total tax that is delinquent or deficient in the remittance, and if not remitted within two working days after the date of the delinquency, shall pay a total penalty of twenty (20) percent of the amount of tax owed. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a person required to collect and/or remit the utility users' tax shall not be subject the fifteen (15) percent penalty and interest for an "improper assessment," if such "improper assessment" is voluntarily disclosed to the tax administrator, or its agent, and promptly corrected thereafter by such person, whether the disclosure occurs in the course of a tax administrator survey under Sections 3.20.060(C), 3.20.080(D) and 3.20.090(G) or the disclosure is voluntarily initiated by such person. For purposes of this subsection the term "voluntarily disclosed" shall mean information freely offered by a service supplier to the city for the purpose of increasing the accuracy of the service supplier's tax collection and/or remittances before the issue has been raised or an inquiry has been initiated by the city or any other California municipality.

C. The tax administrator shall have power to impose additional penalties upon persons required to collect and/or remit taxes under the provisions of this chapter for fraud or gross negligence in reporting or remitting at the rate of fifteen (15) percent of the amount of the tax collected and/or required to be remitted, or as recomputed by the tax administrator.

D. In addition to any other penalties imposed by this chapter, any person required to collect and/or remit any tax imposed by the provisions of this chapter who fails to collect the tax (by failing to properly assess the tax on the customer s billing) or fails to remit the tax collected, or, in the case of a service user that fails to properly self-collect and remit the tax under Section 3.20.100 of this chapter, shall pay interest at the rate of three-quarters per month, or any fraction thereof, on the amount of the tax, exclusive of penalties, from the date on which the remittance first became delinquent, until paid.

E. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (B) and (D), no penalty or interest shall be applied if delinquencies are the result of natural disasters or other phenomena beyond the control of the person charged with collecting and remitting the tax, provided the person being delinquent notifies the tax administrator as soon as normal communications permit.

(Ord. 2001-168 § 1 (part), 2001)