2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title IX - Taxation › Chapter 60a - Excise Tax on Registered Motor Vehicles in Lieu of Local Tax › Section 2a - Nonpayment of Taxes; Collection; Nonrenewal of Driver's License and Vehicle Registration

Section 2A. If an excise assessed under this chapter remains unpaid for fourteen days after a demand therefor made more than one day after such excise becomes due and payable, and if the local tax collector or commissioner of revenue elects to utilize the services of a deputy collector, then said deputy collector or the local tax collector or commissioner of revenue, as the case may be, shall send a notice of warrant to the delinquent taxpayer. In the event that the delinquent taxpayer does not respond within thirty days to said notice of warrant then a service warrant shall be made. If the tax remains unpaid after the service of warrant then the deputy collector may, at the discretion of the local collector, return the uncollected warrants of those delinquent taxpayers to the local tax collector or commissioner of revenue. The local tax collector, the commissioner of revenue, or their designee, as the case may be, may at any time and from time to time not later than six years after the initial excise tax issuance was made, transmit to the registrar of motor vehicles, hereinafter in this section called the registrar, in such form as approved by the registrar, notice of such nonpayment, specifying the name and address of the person to whom the excise is assessed, the amount of the excise due and all interest thereon and costs relative thereto and such information as to the motor vehicle or trailer assessed as was transmitted by the registrar to the commissioner of revenue under section two; provided, however, that no notice shall be transmitted to the registrar under this section at a time when there is pending before the local board of assessors or the appellate tax board, as the case may be, a duly filed application for the abatement of such excise in whole or in part nor within thirty days after action upon any such application by the local board of assessors or the appellate tax board, as the case may be.
Upon receipt of such notification of nonpayment the registrar shall place the matter on record and not renew the license to operate a motor vehicle of the registered owner of said vehicle or the registration of said vehicle nor allow an exchange of the registration of such vehicle nor issue a new registration of such vehicle to the person to whom the unpaid excise tax was assessed until after notice from the local tax collector or the commissioner of revenue that the matter has been disposed of in accordance with law.
Upon such notification of nonpayment to the registrar, an additional twenty dollar charge payable to the registrar of motor vehicles shall be assessed against the registered owner of said vehicle. It shall be the duty of the local tax collector or commissioner of revenue to notify the registrar forthwith that such matters have been disposed of in accordance with law; provided however, that a certified receipt of full and final payment from either the local tax collector or commissioner of revenue shall also serve as a legal notice to the registrar that the matter has been so disposed of.
Except as heretofore provided, the registrar shall approve such forms as he deems necessary to implement this section and said forms shall be printed and used by the cities and towns.
On or before September first of each year, the registrar of motor vehicles shall certify for each city and town in the commonwealth the total number of charges to be assessed pursuant to this section based upon the number of notices received by the registrar that have been disposed of in accordance with law. The registrar shall include such assessments in the warrants prepared in accordance with section twenty of chapter fifty-nine.