A Taxing Situation

The Vermont Supreme Court disagreed with Disciplinary Counsel on the need to suspend an attorney

 This is an attorney disciplinary matter relating to licensee Christena Obregon’s failure to timely file personal Vermont income tax returns for tax years 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2010. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel requests that we impose a sanction of a suspension because of licensee’s allegedly false averments on her attorney licensing renewal statements for 2009 and 2011 that she was in good standing with respect to all taxes owed. We conclude that licensee made no misrepresentations on her attorney licensing renewal statement and that a public reprimand is a sufficient sanction for her failure to timely file her tax returns.

 Disciplinary Counsel opened an investigation on notice that the attorney was “not in good standing” with state tax authorities

 Licensee eventually replied to disciplinary counsel that she had paid all Vermont taxes that she owed, both personally and on behalf of her business, and contested all allegations of the Department of Taxes. She asserted that until she received the letter from disciplinary counsel she was unaware that she was not in good standing. She acknowledged the delays in filing her tax returns, but explained that due to two computer crashes, she had to reconstruct financial data from bank records. Additionally, because of a car accident in 2011, she alleged that she had suffered from post-concussion syndrome, which resulted in her taking a medical leave from work and affected her ability to properly manage her administrative responsibilities. She alleged that all these issues contributed to her delay in filing her tax returns. She also alleged that she had a satisfactory plan in place with the Department of Taxes to get her returns filed.

Her electronic license renewal statement were not false

 We…conclude that under the plain language of Administrative Order 41 licensee was in good standing with respect to all taxes owed to Vermont in 2009 and 2011. Because she made no misrepresentation when electronically renewing her attorney license, we affirm the panel’s finding of no probable cause on the charge arising from her certification on the licensing renewal.

The court imposed a public reprimand. (Mike Frisch)