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Personal Liability Assessments

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If a business you are associated with fails to pay its tax debt, you may be assessed as liable for the debt. The Minnesota Department of Revenue sends:

An Order Assessing Personal Liability letter notifying you of your responsibility to pay the debt
Your appeal rights explaining your right to request a review of our assessment

See Minnesota Statutes, section 270C.56, 289A.31, and 290.92.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has updated how it applies postmarks. This change could affect tax information, forms, or payments sent by mail. For details, select USPS Postmark Changes.

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Assessing Personal Liability [+]

The Department of Revenue	These Entities
May assess personal liability at any time on	Officers and directors Managers Treasurers and financial secretaries Accountants and bookkeepers Supervisors and other employees who: Write checks for the business Decide whether to file tax returns and pay debts Hire and fire employees Control the business' financials Have an entrepreneurial stake in the business
Must assess personal liability prior to enforced collection actions on	Officers of corporations Limited liability companies Cooperatives Estate and trust organization - profit or non-profit
Is not required to assess prior to enforced collection actions on	Sole proprietors Individual spouses in a qualified joint venture

Personal Liability Assessment Appeal [+]

Once assessed, you have 60 days to appeal either to us or Minnesota Tax Court. If you need more time when appealing to us, you may request an additional 30 days to appeal. Your request must be in writing.

If we deny your appeal, you have 60 days from the date of our denial to appeal to Minnesota Tax Court. We will not take any collection action against you during the appeal period

Personal Liability Taxes [+]

The Department of Revenue may assess personal liability for:

Sales and Use
Withholding
Provider
Petroleum
Hospital
Surgical Center
Wholesale Drug Distributor
Legend Drug Use
Cigarette
Tobacco
Common Carrier
Distilled Spirits
Wine
Fermented Malt Beverages
Lawful Gambling
Untaxed Gambling Product and Sports Bookmaking
S corporation (non-resident withholding only)
Partnership (non-resident withholding only)

We will not assess personal liability for:

Corporate Franchise (Income) Tax
Partnership Income Tax
MinnesotaCare Tax from 1995 and earlier
Debts we are collecting for other agencies

USPS Postmark Changes [+]

Recent updates in how the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) applies postmarks could affect information, forms, or payments sent to us by mail.

Postmarks show the date USPS first processes your mail, which may be later than when you dropped it at a post office or put it in your mailbox. This could affect tax returns or payments that must be mailed by a deadline.

If You Mail Information, Forms, or Payments

If you're mailing information, forms, or payments, we recommend you:

Mail it several business days before the deadline.
Bring it to a USPS retail counter and ask for a manual postmark.

If You File or Pay Electronically

This postmark change does not affect electronic filing or payments. You can learn more about electronic options at:

For details on the USPS change, see the postmark rule published in the Federal Register (90 Fed. Reg. 52883).

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Last Updated

April 02, 2026

Personal Liability Assessments

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