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		Section/Rule:	4.9
Subject:	Chapter 4 - Financial Procedures	Publication / Adopted Date:	July 2007
Topic:	Tax Offset	Revised / Effective Date:	May 2019

o Effective date of the plan;
o Minimum payment due at the case disposition or prior to granting a payment plan;
o Minimum monthly payment to ensure the repayment time frame is reasonable; and
o Obtaining debtor’s social security number

2. The Missouri Department of Revenue Confidentiality Oath;

3. The State of Missouri Office of Administration Vendor Input / ACH-EFT Application form

Mail the completed forms to:

Tax Offset Program
OSCA
P.O. Box 104480
Jefferson City, MO 65110

§ The court name and contact information on the form is sent to DOR. DOR uses this information to produce the notices of offset sent to the defendant and spouse.
§ The court contact information on the form is used by OSCA to set up the e-mail group that receives tax offset information and inquiries for the court.

4.1. Costs that are “eligible” for the offset program include, but are not limited to:

§ Fees, fines, victim restitution owed to a political subdivision;
§ Surcharges such as legal services fees, Law enforcement training, drug testing costs, and Crime Victims Compensation Fund (CVC);
§ Time payment fee (See section 488.5025, RSMo)


4.2. Costs NOT included in the offset program are:

§ Victim restitution owed to individual or company;

§ Deposition costs due an individual or company (since by statute these are judgments, not costs);

§ Judgments due an individual or company;

§ Public defender liens; or

§ Costs on a case where the court receives notice that the individual has filed for bankruptcy.

Note: Any court costs, fines and fees delinquent prior to July 28, 2003, can be submitted for offset if the individual’s SSN is available and a delinquency of more than $25.00 exists.

Example

John Smith is ordered to pay court costs of $100.00. He agrees to pay $25.00 per month beginning June 1st. Mr. Smith makes his first payment of $25.00 on time (June 1st); however, he fails to make the July 1st or August 1st payments. Mr. Smith has a total delinquency of $50.00 as of August 1st. The court tax offset program is implemented September 1st; the court submits Mr. Smith’s case for offset of $50.00 on September 1st because he is delinquent by more than $25.00 and the debt is over 30 days old.




Date	Amount Due	Amount Paid	Delinquency
June 1	$25.00	$25.00	$0
July 1	$25.00	$0	$25.00
August 1	$25.00	$0	$50.00
September 1 (Amount Submitted for Offset)			$50.00

1.1. New cases that meet criterion. (Cases that were not previously submitted. i.e., cases with payment plans that have been initiated and payments have not been made according to the payment schedule);

1.2. Cases in which circumstances have changed enabling certification (i.e. the individual was current on their payment plan, however they have recently failed to make scheduled payments);

1.3. Cases that were certified in previous weeks and continue to meet certification criteria; and

1.4. Cases that no longer meet the certification criteria are automatically dropped. This includes cases with payment plans that have been made current or have been satisfied.

Note: If a JIS court needs to exclude a case from tax offset, make the payment plan inactive for that case. The case will be removed from the electronic file the following week.

1.1. Each case will be submitted to DOR individually on the electronic file. When an individual has delinquent court cost, fines and fees on more than one case, the cases will not be combined.

Note: An individual may appear on the file multiple times.

1.2. OSCA retains a copy of the submittal file for JIS courts in the event a court needs to verify that an individual’s case had been submitted.

1.1. If there is a match, the individual’s tax refund will be sent to the agency requesting it.

1.2. If multiple agencies have submitted requests to intercept the same individual’s tax refund, the agency with the largest debt will receive the refund.

1.3. If the agencies have the same amount of debt, DOR will award the refund to the agency that entered the Tax Offset Program first.

2.1. Intercept List (electronic and hardcopy)

2.2. Notice of Court Debt Offset (electronic and hardcopy)

2.3 Spousal Notice of Court Debt Offset (4.9b) (hardcopy)

2.4 Name Control Error Listing Report (Tax Offset Mismatch Name)

2.5 Intercepts

1.1. Court staff should immediately review the case to verify the debt is still due.

Note: The Adjusted Refund amount may include interest owed to the taxpayer by the state. The interest is not listed separately in the email.

Example: Case Id: 02CR12345-01 Case Description: ST V SPONGE BOB.

This allows courts to quickly access the notices to handle inquiries from the individuals.

Note: The court should assume that DOR has the most correct SSN information for the defendant when there is a discrepancy between the SSN on their record and the SSN contained in the courts record.

Note: The Tax Offset Mismatch Name Notices must be reviewed immediately. If OSCA does not receive notice from the court by 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, DOR will be notified to release the intercept.

Note: If a court fails to respond to the notice by 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, OSCA will assume the court does not want the intercept and instructs DOR to release the funds to the taxpayer.

Note: After September 1, 2003, when JIS courts assess costs using the JIS standard debt account priority, the offset will automatically distribute to the allowable costs.

1.1. After 45 days, funds are disbursed to the courts via electronic funds transfer (EFT).

1.2. When the EFT is disbursed, the courts receive an e-mail to their tax offset e-mail group with the statement, “Tax Offset Electronic Funds Transfer - Dated: MM/DD/YYYY” in the subject line.

2.1. If an error was made on the payment plan, and the individual is current, make the appropriate adjustments to the system.
Note: For JIS courts this means correcting the payment plan.

2.2. Complete the “Results of Court Review of Debt Offset Action” section of the Application for Review of Court Debt Offset and send a copy of the Application with the findings to the defendant.

2.3. Immediately notify OSCA via e-mail at [email protected] or fax 573-526-7330 of the outcome of the review and request that all or part of the intercept be released to the defendant.

2.4. If the payment plan is correct and the defendant owes the court the money, complete the “Results of Court Review of Debt Offset Action” section of the Application for Review of Court Debt Offset and send a copy of the Application with the findings to the defendant.

2.5. Immediately notify OSCA via e-mail at [email protected] or fax 573-526-7330 of the outcome of the review and notify them to release the intercept to the court.

3.1 Pre-review inquires will be handled by the court.

3.2 If a review has been held and it is determined that the court is entitled to retain the offset, any inquiries will be handled by the court.

3.3 If a review has been held and it is determined that the offset should be returned to the individual, upon inquiry, the court will inform the individual that his or her offset will be returned within 30 days.

3.4 If OSCA was notified of the outcome of a review in favor of the individual and more than 30 days has passed, the inquiry can be forwarded to OSCA.

2.1. If the review finds the court is due the tax offset, OSCA will release the offset to the court within 30 days of notice from the court.
Note: Per statute, the earliest OSCA will request an offset be released to the courts is 45 days from the date of the intercept.

2.2. If the review finds that the tax offset should be returned to the individual, OSCA will release the offset to the individual within 15 days of receiving notice.

Note: Since OSCA has to request the release of the offset through OA, it could take up to 30 days before the offset is released to the individual.

3.1. If DOR determines the spouse is due part or all of the tax offset, OSCA will release the spouse’s portion of the offset to him or her, and send the remainder to the court, if any.

3.2 If DOR determines that the entire tax offset is due to the individual, the tax offset will be sent to the court.

1.1. OSCA will direct requests for calculation of spousal apportionment to DOR. DOR is responsible for calculating the spouse’s portion of the refund.

Note: Since OSCA has to request the release of the offset through the OA, it could take up to 30 days before the offset is released to the individual. The portion of the offset due the individual is released 45 days from the intercept date.

3.1. DOR notifies OSCA of the correct spousal apportionment.

Note: Refund requests sent to any other address may not get processed. Make sure all refund requests are sent to [email protected].

Note: The following information must be provided in the e-mail:
§ Defendant's Name;

§ The Case number;

§ The payment plan Number;

§ Amount to be released/refunded; and

§ Why the refund is being requested (i.e. the defendant came in the office and paid off his debt).

Note: If the Notice of Court Debt Offset is attached to the refund request, the defendant's name, case number and payment plan number are not required.