From left, Commonwealth Casino Commissioner Mario Taitano, Chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, Vice Chairman Ralph S. Demapan and Assistant Attorney General Lucy Blanco-Maratita during a break from a meeting Thursday.
THE Commonwealth Casino Commission will ask the federal court to dismiss the $5.8 million tax lien filed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service against CCC.
The CNMI Division of Revenue & Taxation, through Assistant Attorney General Dustin Rollins, has questioned the tax lien, and provided IRS with copies of the W2s of CCC’s 11 employees to dispute the federal agency’s claim that CCC has an unpaid balance of $5,863,195.43 for payroll-related tax returns or IRS Form 941.
During the casino commission’s monthly meeting on Thursday, CCC Chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero said he was told that Rollins had yet to receive a response from the IRS.
Deleon Guerrero said although “it’s typical” for such a large government organization as the IRS to take a while to respond to inquiries, he agrees with Rollins that it was “almost impossible” that the IRS assessed CCC over $5 million for the last quarter of fiscal year 2022 related to 11 CCC employees.
“We know there are some mistakes there,” Deleon Guerrero said.
He said if the IRS does not respond to CNMI Rev & Tax’s inquiry, “we should take the initiative to file a motion to dismiss that tax lien.”
Deleon Guerrero said the IRS “publicly put us out on notice that there is a lien and they have been notified by CNMI Rev & Tax, which provided them with the 11 employees’ W2 forms and the amount of taxes paid. They [the IRS] were notified that [the lien] is erroneous yet they have no response.”
Deleon Guerrero added, “I think the most we could do is file for dismissal of that lien in federal court.”
