Are Kansas Department of Revenue notices, guidelines, information guides, revenue rulings, and letters legally binding regulations?

Plain-English summary

A correspondent asked about the status of notices and other publications issued by the Kansas Department of Revenue.

K.S.A. 79-3618 authorized the Secretary to administer and enforce sales and use tax law. The Department treated that authority as including the ability to publish guidelines, instructions, memoranda, booklets, guides, notices, revenue rulings, letters, and similar taxpayer materials.

Those publications were generally informational and instructive, not rules or regulations under K.S.A. 77-415. They helped taxpayers understand the Department's expected administration but did not carry the legal status of a regulation.

Notices were published in the Kansas Register. They could explain forms and filing dates, announce implementation guidelines for new statutes, and rescind older Department opinions inconsistent with the notice or revenue ruling.

The Department often used a notice as an initial framework and later adopted an administrative regulation after gaining implementation experience. Once the directive appeared in a regulation, the letter said it was Kansas law and compliance was mandatory.

What this means for you

Taxpayers and preparers

Use notices to understand Department expectations, but distinguish them from statutes and duly adopted regulations.

Compliance teams

Check whether notice language was later incorporated into a regulation, superseded, or rescinded.

Legal researchers

The legal weight depends on publication type and subsequent action; do not cite every Department document as though it were a regulation.

Common questions

Q: Is a Department notice itself a regulation?
A: Generally no. The letter classified it as informational guidance.

Q: What can a notice do?
A: Explain administration, forms, dates, new laws, and rescission of inconsistent Department opinions.

Q: When does a directive become mandatory law?
A: When adopted in an administrative regulation, according to the opinion.

Citations and references

• K.S.A. 79-3618 — Secretary's authority to administer and enforce sales and use taxes
• K.S.A. 79-3646 — Department publication authority referenced in the letter
• K.S.A. 77-415 — rules and regulations distinction
• K.A.R. 92-19-58 and 92-19-59 — Department rulings and letters

Source

• Landing page: Kansas Department of Revenue Policy Information Library
• Original document: O-2001-002

Original ruling text

Opinion Letter

Body:

Office of Policy & Research

January 3, 2001

XXXX
XXXX
XXXX

RE: Your e-mail of December 20, 2000

Dear XXXX:

I have been asked to answer the questions raised in your e-mail that we received last month. K.S.A. 79-3618 grants the secretary of revenue authority to administer and enforce the Kansas sales and use tax acts. Implicit in this grant to the secretary is the authority to issue guidelines, instructions, memorandum, instruction booklets, information guides, notices, revenue rulings, letters, and other publications to advise taxpayers and tax practitioners how Kansas tax laws are expected to be implemented. See KA.R. 92-19-58; K.A.R. 92-19-59; K.S.A. 79-3646.

Guidelines, instructions, memorandum, instruction booklets, information guides, notices, revenue rulings, and letters are generally regarded as merely informational and instructive in nature, and do not rise to the level of rules and regulations. See K.S.A. 77-415. While not considered to be law as regulations are, the department has issued these public advisories, instructions, and notices since at least 1938, and has found them to be an indispensable means of administering tax laws.

The department publishes its notices in the Kansas register. Notices provide information of use to the general public and to tax practitioners. Notices and revenue rulings provide a means to rescind past opinions issued by the department that may inconsistent with the statements in the notice. See K.A.R. 92-19-59(c)(4). Notices are sometimes used to instruct the public and practitioners about how tax forms should be completed, filing dates, and other things of interest to them. In addition, notices often contain guidelines that establish how the department expects to implement new statutes. It is a common departmental practice to publish a notice and then later, once experience has been gained implementing a new law, to use the notice as an outline for an administrative regulation. Once a directive from a notice is published in an administrative regulation, it is considered to be the law of Kansas and compliance with it is mandatory.

I believe that this answers all of your questions. If not, please visit our web sit at http://www.ink.org/public/kdor/.

Sincerely,

Thomas E. Hatten

Attorney/Policy & Research

Date Composed: 01/10/2001 Date Modified: 10/10/2001

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