By Jonathan Feldman and Hanish Patel

The Georgia Department of Revenue issued a proposed regulation amending the use of direct pay permits for state and local sales and use taxes. The proposed regulation would cause all current permits to expire on December 31, 2016, and require all current holders to reapply and agree to certain conditions, most notably the waiver of interest on refunds of taxes remitted on purchases made with the permit. In December 2015, the Georgia Association of Manufacturers and the Council on State Taxation commented on the first proposed amended version of the regulation, advocating against the required waiver of refund interest and other procedural items. In this second version, the Department has revised several of the procedural items, but the interest waiver remains. The public comment period is open until March 3, 2016. Georgia Notice SUT 2016-001.