1. (a) The Department shall initiate a certified audit pilot project to further enhance tax compliance reviews performed by qualified practitioners and to encourage taxpayers to hire qualified practitioners at their own expense to review and report on certain aspects of their sales tax and use tax compliance in cases where the Department has notified the taxpayer that it has received a tax compliance referral from a municipality, county, or third party under this Act. The nature of the certified audit work performed by qualified practitioners shall be agreed-upon procedures of a Compliance Attestation in which the Department is the specified user of the resulting report. Qualified practitioners are prohibited from using information obtained from audit manuals, training materials, or any other materials provided by the Department under this Act for any purpose other than to perform the tax compliance reviews under the certified audit pilot program under this Act.

   The tax compliance reviews shall be limited in scope and may include only: (i) whether the taxpayer is reporting receipts in the proper jurisdiction; (ii) whether tangible personal property purchases that were used or consumed by the taxpayer were taxed properly; (iii) an evaluation of sales reported as exempt from tax; (iv) whether the proper tax rate was charged; (v) whether the tax was properly reported as retailers' occupation tax or use tax; and (vi) any other factor that impacts the Department's allocation of sales and use tax revenues to the jurisdiction in which the taxpayer reports sales or use tax.

2. (b) As an incentive for taxpayers to incur the costs of a certified audit, the Department shall abate penalties due on any tax liabilities revealed by a certified audit, except that this authority to abate penalties shall not apply to any liability for taxes that were collected by the participating taxpayer but not remitted to the Department, nor shall the Department have the authority to abate fraud penalties.
3. (c) The certified audit pilot project shall apply only to taxpayers who have been notified that an audit referral has been received by the Department under this Act and only to occupation and use taxes administered and collected by the Department.
4. (c-5) The Department shall charge a fee of $2,500 to each participant in the certification program under this Article.
5. (d) The certified audit pilot project shall begin with audit referrals received on and after January 1, 2021. Upon obtaining proper certification, qualified practitioners may initiate certified audits beginning January 1, 2021.

(Source: P.A. 101-628, eff. 6-1-20; 102-40, eff. 6-25-21.)