45 IAC 22-1-3 Assessment of civil penalty

Authority: IC 6-8.1-3-3; IC 9-20-18-14.5

Affected: IC 9-20-18-14.5

Sec. 3. When making an assessment of a penalty under section 2 of this rule, the following apply:

(1) A carrier shall only receive one (1) warning letter from the department of state revenue (department) for a first violation under IC 9-20-18-14.5(b) or IC 9-20-18-14.5(c).

(2) A warning letter providing an outline of additional civil penalties a carrier may be subject to if any future violations occur, or may have already occurred, but have not been processed by the department.

(3) When substantially similar violations are committed by a single, distinguishable act or failure to act, only one (1) of those violations may be subject to a civil penalty for that act. This subdivision is intended to avoid duplicating civil penalty assessment for violating multiple provisions of a statute or rule that may be substantially similar or closely related. This subdivision is not intended to limit in any way civil penalty assessment for violations resulting from more than one (1) distinguishable, unrelated act or failure to act, or a reoccurring violation.

(4) When determining the amount of a civil penalty under the procedures outlined in subdivision (3), the department shall use the appropriate violation with the highest penalty amount.

(5) Based on the limitation in subdivision (3), the penalties under section 2 of this rule are assessed for each violation, and, as a result, a carrier may accrue multiple penalties in a single Indiana State Police Commercial Enforcement Division Inspection Report.

(6) When an Indiana state police (ISP) officer conducts an inspection that does not result in a citation, or during the inspection the officer issues a warning to a carrier under IC 9-20-18-14.5(b), IC 9-20-18-14.5(c), or IC 9-20-18-14.5(d), the department may not assess a civil penalty, and any warning issued by ISP serves as the complete penalty for referenced violations.

(7) Warning letters sent to a carrier for actions where ISP did not provide the full information, and therefore not actionable by the department, are sent as a courtesy and do not count as a warning letter for purposes of this section.

(Department of State Revenue; 45 IAC 22-1-3; filed Dec 17, 2024, 1:39 p.m.: 20250115-IR-045240387FRA)