General Counsel's Office
The General Counsel's Office ensures the Department's compliance with law and internal policies.
- The General Counsel’s Office (GCO) Bureau is responsible for providing comprehensive legal counsel and representation for the Department and ensures the Department’s compliance with state and federal law and internal policies. The GCO comprises several sections to conform to the major functions of the Department. Each section is supervised by a Managing Counsel, an experienced attorney with substantial subject matter knowledge relevant to the work of the unit. The attorneys in all units respond to information and letter ruling requests. Support staff provide administrative and legal assistant support to attorneys.
- The Contracts/Personnel Section is responsible for sunshine law requests, subpoenas, memorandums of agreement and understanding, personnel matters, candidate affidavits, information requests, general confidentiality issues, and other duties as assigned.
- The Bankruptcy Section represents the Director in federal bankruptcy court proceedings. The attorneys are responsible for filing claims for unpaid taxes and fees owed to the Department, as well as ensuring proper treatment of the Department’s claims and interests under the bankruptcy laws. The Bankruptcy Section ensures the Department’s compliance with federal bankruptcy laws., and enforces the bankruptcy law requiring debtors to file past due tax returns. The attorneys and support staff receive notice of filings, gather information for pleadings, monitor the progress of payment plans, process collections, and update the Department’s tax database with the results.
- The Collections Section is responsible for the collection of delinquent taxes and penalties which require legal assistance including the filing of tax liens, garnishments, executions, injunctions, issuance of subpoenas, mediation, arbitration and general civil litigation. The Collections section appears in all civil circuit courts of Missouri, administrative tribunals, Kansas administrative hearings, and Federal courts.
- The Income Tax Section is responsible for providing legal counsel and representation of the Director in litigation involving individual income, corporation income, withholding, financial institutions, and insurance premiums taxes. The attorneys also act as informal hearing officers for corporate income tax protests.
- The Sales/Use Tax Section is responsible for providing legal counsel and representation of the Director in litigation involving sales and use taxes, excise tax, and miscellaneous transaction based taxes.
- The Transportation Section represents the Director in administrative alcohol driver license suspensions and all appeals in circuit court and some appellate court reviews. The attorneys handle motor vehicle title and motor vehicle dealer licensing cases. They also conduct annual training for law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges, and respond to information requests from the public and from the Motor Vehicle and Driver Licensing Division.
