Adams County news. [volume] (Ritzville, Wash.) 1898-1906, 1898-03-23
Tax PAYERS Take Notice.

/ have received from the State Aud
itor the following opinions by the
Attorney General in regard to the col
lection Of the personal property taxes:
l. Personal property taxes, secured
or unsecured by real estate, become
delinquent at the expiration of the
thirty days notice required by law to
be given by the county treasurer after
the first Monday in February of each
year. By delinquency is meant that
those taxes are subject to immediate
collection; together with interest, i'm
mediately following said date.
2. Interest at the required rate
prescribed by the revenue act attaches
to these taxes Immediately upon the
above named period of delinquency.
3. Where personal property taxes
have not been paid at the expiration
of the thirty days notice, above spoken
of, the treasurer should Immediately
proceed to distrain and collect those
taxes, unless during the thirty day
period the tax debtor shall have noti-
fed the treasurer that he possesses
certain real estate sufficient to secure
the taxes, furnishing the description
to the treasurer or referring him to
the proper place in the record where
the accurate description may be OBJ
tanned, in which event the personal
taxes Immediately become a charge
against the real estate, if in the judg-
ment of the treasurer, said real estate
is sufficient to secure the payment,
and bear interest from date of delin-
quency, at the rate of fifteen per cent
per annum. In all cases where there
is no real estate security back of the
personal property taxes, the treasurer
shall Immediately distrain and collect.
4. lam of the opinion that the
personal property tax of 1897 may not
be paid in two installments, but that
as prerequisite to permitting
payment of one-half of the taxes lev
led against real estate, the treasurer
should require the catifaction in full
before May 3lst of the outstanding
personal taxes charged against the
real estate. The provisioned contained
in the revenue act os 1897, permitting
the payment of one-half of the taxes
before May 31st and the remaining
one-half before November 30th, in its
general effect applies solely to real
estate taxes, which is illustrated clear
ly by the fact that the same act by
special grace permitted the personal
taxes of 1896 to be paid in two Install
ments. As that provision was confin-
ed purely to the 1896 personal taxes,
it cannot be extended to any subse-
quent taxes.
5. All personal taxes should be
collected wherever possible and returns
made to the county auditor before
June l, 1898.
Wherever the real estate security
exists and the personal taxes have
been charged against the real estate,
the treasurer should make his return,
setting up the delinquency of those
taxes and the security behind them.
County treasurers should not issue
receipts for real property where per-
sonal taxes have been charged against
the real property until the personal
property taxes so charged have been
satisfied.
As it has been stated before that to
avail himself OF the right to have per-
sonal property taxes charged against
reality, the owner and tax debtor must
notify the treasurer OF his desire to
exercise that right, it necessarily fol-
lows that the date Of such notice is
the record lien, against the reality,
represented by the personal property
tax.
No record beyond this and the
charge on the treasurer's books is re-
quired to he made.
The personal property tax becomes
charge against real property and in
somuch part of the real property tax
but, as has been explained above, it
may not be satisfied in two Install
ments but must be satisfied in one or
become finally delinquent on June LIST
of each year. GEO. SINCLAIR,
County Treasurer.
Buy Waverly.