HB 896-FN-LOCAL – AS INTRODUCED
2007 SESSION
10/09
HOUSE BILL 896-FN-LOCAL
AN ACT relative to authority to waive interest on late paid property tax bills.
SPONSORS: Rep. Cloutier, Sull 4; Rep. Converse, Sull 4; Rep. Donovan, Sull 4; Rep. Gagnon, Sull 4; Rep. Nielsen, Sull 4; Sen. Odell, Dist 8; Sen. Burling, Dist 5
COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government
This bill allows the selectmen or assessors to allow the tax collector to waive interest due for the late payment of property taxes. Current law limits the amount to $25.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
07-0413
10/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Seven
AN ACT relative to authority to waive interest on late paid property tax bills.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Property Taxation; Interest. Amend RSA 76:13 to read as follows:
76:13 Interest. Interest at 12 percent per annum shall be charged upon all taxes except resident taxes, except as otherwise provided by statute, not paid on or before December 1 after their assessment, which shall be collected from that date with the taxes as incident thereto, except in the case where a tax bill sent to the taxpayer on or after November 2 and before April 1 of the following year interest shall not be charged until 30 days after the bills are mailed. Interest due [in an amount up to $25] may be waived by the collector, with the approval and consent of the board of selectmen and the board of assessors, if in the collector’s judgment the administrative and collection costs involved do not warrant collection of the amount due. The tax collector shall state on the tax bill the date from which interest will be charged and such date shall be determined by the day the collector sends out the last tax bill on the list. The collector shall notify the board of tax and land appeals in writing of the date on which the last tax bill was sent.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect April 1, 2007.
LBAO
07-0413
1/8/07
HB 896-FN-LOCAL - FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to authority to waive interest on late paid property tax bills.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Department of Revenue Administration has determined this bill may decrease local revenue by an indeterminable amount in FY 2008 and each year thereafter. The New Hampshire Municipal Association states the fiscal impact on local expenditures and revenue is indeterminable. There will be no fiscal impact on state and county expenditures or state and county revenue.
METHODOLOGY:
The Department of Revenue Administration states this bill will allow selectmen or assessors to allow the tax collector to waive interest due for the late payment of property taxes. The bill is permissive and the Department states this bill provides the potential for a tax collector to abate all interest in delinquent taxes reducing the incentive to pay timely. The Department determined a worst case scenario using year end 2004 financial data reported on the Annual City/Town (MS5) Financial Report and compiled by the Census Bureau to calculate interest and penalties collected on delinquent taxes in municipalities of $13,514,492. The Department is not able to determine how much of that amount was for penalties, but used a rounded amount of $13,000,000 in FY 2004 as the base for annual lost revenue and applied a three percent annual inflation rate to calculate the next year. The Department calculated the following fiscal impact:
FY 2007: $14,205,451 ($13,791,000 (FY 2006 amount) * 1.03)
FY 2008: $14,631,615 ($14,205,451 (FY 2007 amount) * 1.03)
FY 2009: $15,070,563 ($14,631,615 (FY 2008 amount) * 1.03)
FY 2010: $15,522,680 ($15,070,563 (FY 2009 amount) * 1.03)
FY 2011: $15,988,360 ($15,522,680 (FY 2010 amount) * 1.03)
The New Hampshire Municipal Association states there is no way to predict which municipalities would be affected by this change and what amount of interest would be waived.