Ala. Code § 40-17-343 — Deductions from Monthly Return for Payments Not Previously Remitted; Administrative Discount

(a) The supplier or permissive supplier may deduct from the next monthly return those tax payments that were not remitted for the previous month to the supplier or permissive supplier by any licensed distributor or any licensed importer who removed motor fuel on which the tax is due from the supplier’s or permissive supplier’s terminal. The licensed supplier or permissive supplier is eligible to take this deduction if the licensed supplier or permissive supplier notifies the state within 20 business days after a return is due of any licensed distributor, importer, or exporter who did not pay to the supplier or permissive supplier the tax due this state by the time the supplier or permissive supplier filed the monthly return and if, when a licensed distributor or licensed importer fails to remit the tax to the licensed supplier or permissive supplier, the licensed supplier or permissive supplier is not eligible to take the deduction for any tax payments that accrue after the 20 business day period referenced above for delinquent distributors or importers. The notice shall be transmitted to the state in the form required by the department. If a licensee later pays to a supplier or permissive supplier the tax owed, but the payment occurs after the supplier or permissive supplier has deducted the amount of the tax on a return, the supplier or permissive supplier shall remit the payment to the department with the next monthly return filed subsequent to receipt of the tax.
(b) A supplier or permissive supplier who timely files a return with the payment due may deduct, from the amount of tax payable with the return, an administrative discount of one tenth of one percent of the amount of tax payable to this state, not to exceed two thousand dollars ($2,000) per month.