CHAPTER 12

An Act to amend and reenact § 58-151.183 of the Code of Virginia, relating
to employer’s returns and payments of withheld income taxes.

[S 90]
Approved February 7, 1968

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 58-151.13 of the Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted
as follows:

§ 58-151.13. Employer’s returns and payments of withheld taxes.—
(a) Every employer required to deduct and withhold from an employee’s
wages under this article shall, for the quarterly period beginning January
first, nineteen hundred sixty-three, and for each quarterly period there-
after, on or before the * fifteenth day of the month following the close
of each quarterly period make return and pay over to the Commissioner
the amount required to be withheld under this article, except that for
the last quarterly period in each year such return may be filed and pay-
ment made on or before the thirty-first day of January of the year follow-
ing; and except, further, that where the aggregate amount required to
be deducted and withheld by any employer for any quarterly period can
reasonably be expected to be at least three hundred dollars, such employer
shall file a return and pay the tax monthly, on or before the fifteenth
day of the following month for each month, January through November,
inclusive, and on or before January thirty-first for the month of De-
cember. Such returns shall be in such form and contain such information
as the Commissioner may prescribe.

(b) If the Commissioner, in any case, has reason to believe that
the collection of moneys, required by this article to be withheld by the
employer, is in jeopardy, he may require the employer to make such
return and pay to the Commissioner such amounts required to be with-
held at any time said Commissioner may designate therefor subsequent
to the time when such amounts should have been deducted from wages
and withheld.

(c) Every employer who fails to withhold or pay to the Commis-
sioner any sums required by this article to be withheld and paid shall
be personally and individually liable therefor; and any sum or sums with-
held in accordance with the provisions of this article shall be deemed
to be held in trust for the Commonwealth.

(d) Any employer required under the provisions of this article to
deduct and withhold from wages and make quarterly or monthly returns
and payment of amounts withheld to the Commissioner, who fails to
withhold such amounts, or to make such returns, or who fails to remit
amounts collected to the Commissioner, or otherwise fails to remit to the
Commissioner as required by this article, shall be subject to a penalty
equal to twenty-five per cent of the amount that should have been properly
withheld and paid over to the Commissioner for each such failure. Such
penalty shall be assessed by the Commissioner and shall be collected by
him ay the same manner as the collection of taxes may be enforced under
this title.

(e) Upon failure of any employer to pay over any amounts with-
held or required to be withheld by the employer under this article, the
Commissioner may make assessments and enforce the collection of such
amounts, including penalties, by any legal process provided for the en-
forcement of the collection of taxes under this title.

(f) Once an employer has become liable to a quarterly or monthly
return of withholding, he must continue to file a quarterly or monthly
report, as the case may be, even though no tax has been withheld, until
such time as he notifies the Commissioner, in writing, that he no
longer has employees or that he is no longer liable for such quarterly
or monthly returns. If an employer requests in writing that he be per-
mitted to change from a monthly return to a quarterly return on the
ground that his withholding has become less than three hundred dollars
for each quarter, such change shall be permitted only at the beginning
of acalendar year.

(zg) The Commissioner may grant an employer a reasonable exten-
sion of time for filing any return under this article whenever in his
judgment good cause exists. Whenever under the terms of such an exten-
sion the payment of any amount or amounts of money to the Commis-
sioner by the employer is postponed for a longer period than * ten days
from the time the same would be otherwise due and payable, such em-
ployer shall be charged with interest on such amount or amounts at the
rate of one-half of one per cent per month or fraction thereof from the
time such amount or amounts were originally due and payable to the date
of payment under the terms of the extension.

(h) This section, as hereby amended, shall apply with respect to
the filing of returns and payment of taxes required to be deducted and
withheld from wages paid on and after January first, nineteen hundred
and sixty-nine.