Tax Type
General Provisions
Local Taxes
Property Tax
Description
Notice of Delinquent Tax
Topic
Collection of Delinquent Tax
Local Power to Tax
Local Taxes Discussion
Date Issued
08-15-1986
[Opinion - Virginia Attorney General: 1986 at 313]
REQUEST BY: Honorable William E. Jones Treasurer for Dinwiddie County
OPINION BY: Mary Sue Terry, Attorney General
OPINION:
You ask whether the procedure of your office for sending past-due tax bills to taxpayers complies with § 58.1-3912 of the Code of Virginia.
I. Facts
You indicate that your office (a) mails tax bills not later than 14 days prior to the due date of December 5 of each year, and (b) upon nonpayment, sends a second notice in the month of February of the succeeding year and a third notice during the month of March of the same succeeding year. You then present a specific fact situation in which you timely sent a bill for 1982 real estate taxes, and when these taxes were not paid by December 5 of that tax year, you sent past-due tax notices in February and March of 1983. You ask whether it was your responsibility to mail past-due tax notices in November 1983 and November 1984 for the 1982 delinquent taxes.1
II. Applicable Statute
Section 58.1-3912 provides, in pertinent part, as follows:
A. The treasurer of every city and county shall, as soon as reasonably possible in each year, but not later than fourteen days prior to the due date of the taxes, send by United States mail to each taxpayer assessed with taxes and levies for that year amounting to five dollars or more . . . a bill or bills in the form prescribed by the Department of Taxation. . . . Upon nonpayment of taxes by . . . the [taxpayer], a past-due tax bill will be sent to the taxpayer. [Emphasis added.]
III. Conclusion: Code Requires Only One Past-Due Tax Bill
The past-due tax bill requirement in § 58.1-3912 is written in the singular form. Clearly then, there is no requirement to send multiple past-due tax notices or to continue to send such notices in each year in which the tax bill remains delinquent.2 It is my opinion, therefore, that a single past-due tax bill sent within a reasonable time3 after the tax becomes delinquent would satisfy the requirements of § 58.1-3912. Your procedures comport with this finding and, in fact, your third notice mailed in March is not statutorily mandated. Finally, no past-due tax bills with respect to the 1982 delinquent taxes were required to be sent in November 1983 and November 1984 because the past-due notice mailed in February 1983 satisfied the requirements of § 58.1-3912.
1 With respect to this question, you indicate that no tax bill for 1983 or 1984 real estate taxes was sent because the property was exempt from taxation for those years as property of an elderly person granted such an exemption under an ordinance adopted pursuant to § 58.1-3210 et seq. That fact is not addressed herein because it does not affect the past-due tax bill provision of § 58.1-3912.
2 On the other hand, the treasurer's duty to collect taxes continues until the taxes are paid or the land is sold as provided in § 58.1-3965 et seq. Past-due tax bills sent in subsequent years may aid tax collection efforts. See §§ 58.1-3919, 58.1-3927 and 58.1-3928.
3 No specific time for sending the past-due tax bill is set forth in the statute. Such a bill sent thirty to ninety days after the taxes become delinquent would appear to meet the "reasonable time" standard.
Attorney General's Opinion