Request By:
Mr. James S. Secrest
Allen County Attorney
P.O. Box 35
Scottsville, Kentucky 42164
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
In OAG 79-544, where the 1979 tax bills in your county were made up and delivered late to the sheriff, such that the normal tax collection procedure and schedule of payment was disturbed and set forward through no fault of taxpayers, we concluded that in applying the 2% discount a reasonable period of payment would be 30 days from the date of mailing the tax bills. You say that in accordance with the opinion the 2% discount was extended through November 30, 1979. We assume the tax bills were mailed October 31, 1979. The original computed tax was collected from December 1, 1979, through December 31, 1979. The 2% penalty was added, commencing January 1, 1980. Apparently you followed the opinion as to the 2% discount, but you did not follow the opinion as to the period for paying the original tax due and applying the penalty.
If the tax bills were mailed October 31, 1979, then the timetable would be set forward 30 days in connection with the 2% discount, payment of net tax bill (actual tax), and the penalty for delinquency. Under the opinion the new timetable would be as follows:
TAX COLLECTION SCHEDULE
If paid by November 30, 1979, 2% discount
Amount of tax bill is paid from Dec. 1 - Jan. 31, 1980.
If not paid by Feb. 1, 1980, delinquent.
If paid between Feb. 1 - Feb. 29, 1980, 2% penalty
If paid after Feb. 29, 1980, 10% penalty.
The sheriff's office closed in observance of the New Year holiday on December 31, 1979, and January 1, 1980, in order to give the sheriff's staff a needed break. Several taxpayers appeared at the sheriff's office on December 31, 1979, and were unable to pay their taxes. When they appeared on January 2, 1980, the 2% penalty was added to the tax bills.
The question is whether or not the sheriff had the right to add the penalty to the tax bills where the taxpayers could prove they had attempted to pay the taxes on December 31, 1979, when the sheriff's office was closed.
The answer is that under our previous opinion, the whole timetable, not a part of it, was extended forward 30 days from November 1, 1979. Thus the tax bills become delinquent on February 1, 1980, not January 1, 1980. Under the facts given, the 2% penalty should be imposed where the tax bill is not paid by February 1, 1980.