HB 2016: tax returns; late filing; penalties - Arizona

Senate Engrossed Version (04/13/2026) → Chaptered Version · 2 edits

MINOR

This document reflects the final legal status of House Bill 2016 after it was signed into law by the Governor. The primary substantive change involves formatting adjustments to penalty clauses, specifically replacing internal amendment markers with standard punctuation to improve readability. The bill retains its original policy intent regarding tax penalties and applies retroactively to taxable periods beginning on or after December 31, 2025.

TECHNICAL

Removed internal legislative markup symbols (such as '�') from penalty sections and replaced them with standard periods to finalize the text for the official code.

TIMELINE

Added formal approval dates (June 19, 2026) and filing dates (June 22, 2026) to confirm the bill has become law.

House Engrossed Version (02/23/2026) → Senate Engrossed Version (04/13/2026) · 3 edits · Apr 13, 2026

MINOR

The bill was amended to change its version status from House to Senate and added a new section number (1.1) to clarify its placement. The substantive policy content regarding tax penalties, definitions, and retroactive application dates remains unchanged, with only minor formatting adjustments to spacing and punctuation.

Scope change

The bill's scope and applicability remain unchanged; the only structural change is the addition of a section number.

TECHNICAL

The bill header was updated from 'House Engrossed' to 'Senate Engrossed' and the bill version identifier was changed from 'H Ver' to 'S Ver'.

Section 1 was renumbered to Section 1.1, likely to accommodate new sections or clarify the bill's structure.

Minor formatting changes were made throughout the text, including adding spaces before periods and adjusting line breaks, but no legal text was added, removed, or altered.

Introduced Version → House Engrossed Version (02/23/2026) · 8 edits · Apr 13, 2026

MODERATE

This bill amends Arizona's tax penalty statutes to add new penalties for frivolous returns, failure to file information returns, and specific tobacco-related violations, while also increasing minimum penalty amounts for late filings to ensure they apply even when no tax is owed. It also clarifies rules for electronic filing penalties and extends retroactive application to tax periods starting after December 31, 2025.

Scope change

The bill expands the scope of penalties to cover new behaviors such as filing frivolous returns and failing to file information returns, and it modifies the applicability of late-filing penalties to include cases where the tax liability is zero.

REQUIREMENT

Added a $500 penalty for filing frivolous returns intended to delay tax administration.

Added a $100 monthly penalty (capped at $500) for failing to file required information returns.

Added a $50 penalty for willfully failing to furnish required statements to employees.

Added a $1,000 penalty for knowingly failing to comply with tobacco product reporting requirements.

Added penalties for selling cigarettes with false labels or counterfeit tax stamps, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

Modified late-filing penalties to apply a minimum of $25 or 4.5% (whichever is greater) and a maximum of $100 or 25% (whichever is greater) for specific tax chapters, ensuring penalties apply even if the tax owed is zero.

Modified electronic filing penalties to apply a minimum of $25 or 5% (whichever is greater) for taxpayers required to file electronically.

TIMELINE

Extended the retroactive application of the act to cover taxable periods beginning on or after December 31, 2025.

tax returns; late filing; penalties

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