Okfuskee County to issue warrants for delinquent taxes

Okfuskee County to issue warrants for delinquent taxes

County Treasurer, Lori Coplin and First Deputy, Lindsey Willis recently attended a County Training Program on Personal Property Tax Warrants given by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service.  For many years, the use of Personal Property Tax Warrants was commonplace; but, over a period of time, this practice fell to the wayside in many counties.  Now, more and more counties have to again rely on this statutory duty to successfully collect funds that are sorely needed for operation of the schools, cities and towns, county and other entities that rely on the property tax for a large percentage of their operating monies.  

Statue 68 O.S. 3104.A.2 says the tax warrant shall be issued or directed against any person or legal entity who had possession, control or an interest in personal property at the time the taxes were assessed.  The tax warrants must be issued against the person having possession of the property at the time it was assessed, as stated above.  The County Sheriff is commanded by the warrant to collect the following within 60 days of receiving the warrant from the Treasurer:  Total taxes due, Interest penalty due on the date of issuance, Advertising costs, Sheriff’s service/collection fee of $50.00, $10.00 tax warrant fee for the County Treasurer and Any other lawful costs or fees on the personal property.

Statute 68 O.S. 3104.A.3 states that if no personal property is found, then the warrant shall be levied upon any real property the delinquent taxpayer owns or in which such person has an interest.  Such lien applies to real property located anywhere in the state of Oklahoma.

At the time of service of the warrant, the Sheriff or Sheriff’s Deputy may utilize any legal method allowed by law to collect the amount that is due for the delinquent personal property taxes.  This includes receiving payment directly from the taxpayer, “tapping the till” of a business, confiscating first proceeds received by an auctioneer conducting a sale of the taxpayer’s property or actually taking possession of the property or other assets of a taxpayer, advertising it in a legal notice, and selling it to satisfy the tax debt as stated in 68 O.S. 3104.B.1-2.

68 O.S. 2932 and 2943 make it clear that it is the required duty of public officials to see that all laws for collection of property taxes are followed and obeyed.  Failure of Public Officials to perform these duties constitutes removal from office, compensation halted and subjected to fines.

Approximately 75 % of the Personal Property Tax collected is apportioned directly to the school district in which the property was assessed.   The Okfuskee County Treasurer’s office will begin mailing courtesy letters to delinquent taxpayers immediately.  The taxpayer will then have 10 days from the date of the mailing to pay the delinquent tax before a warrant is issued.  The taxroll is available online at www.oktaxrolls.com.