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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 1135
January Session, 2019
LCO No. 7239
Referred to Committee on FINANCE, REVENUE AND
BONDING
Introduced by:
(FIN)
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E MUNICIPAL INTEREST RATE
APPLICABLE TO DELINQ UENT PROPERTY TAXES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 12-146 of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2019): 2
(a) Unless the context otherwise requires, wherever used in this 3
section, "tax" includes each property tax and each installment and part 4
thereof due to a municipality as it may have been increased by interest, 5
fees and charges. 6
(b) (1) If any tax due in a single installment or if any installment of 7
any tax due in two or more installments is not paid in full [(1)] (A) on 8
or before the first day of the month next succeeding the month in 9
which it became due and payable, or if not due and payable on the first 10
day of the month, [(2)] (B) on or before the same date of the next 11
succeeding month corresponding to that of the month on which it 12
became due and payable, the whole or such part of such installment as 13
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is unpaid shall thereupon be delinquent and shall be subject to interest 14
from the due date of such delinquent installment. 15
(2) Except for unpaid real estate taxes the collection of which was, or 16
is, deferred under the provisions of section 12-174, and any 17
predecessor and successor thereto, which unpaid real estate taxes 18
continue to be subject to the provisions of such deferred collection 19
statutes, the delinquent portion of the principal of any tax shall be 20
subject to interest at the rate of eighteen per cent per annum from the 21
time when it became due and payable until the same is paid, subject to 22
a minimum interest charge of two dollars per installment which any 23
municipality, by vote of its legislative body or, in the case of a 24
municipality in which the legislative body is a town meeting, its board 25
of selectmen, may elect not to impose. [, and provided, in] In any 26
computation of such interest, under any provision of this section, each 27
fractional part of a month in which any portion of the principal of such 28
tax remains unpaid shall be considered to be equivalent to a whole 29
month. Each addition of interest shall become, and shall be collectible 30
as, a part of such tax. Interest shall accrue at said rate until payment of 31
such taxes due notwithstanding the entry of any judgment in favor of 32
the municipality against the taxpayer or the property of the taxpayer. 33
(3) Any municipality, by vote of its legislative body or, in the case of 34
a municipality in which the legislative body is a town meeting, its 35
board of selectmen, may approve a rate of interest of less than eighteen 36
per cent per annum for the purposes of this section. 37
(c) The collector shall apply each partial payment to the wiping out 38
of such interest before making any application thereof to the reduction 39
of such principal. If any tax, at the time of assessment or because of a 40
subsequent division, represents two or more items of property, the 41
collector may receive payment in full of such part of the principal and 42
interest of such tax as represents one or more of such items, even 43
though interest in full on the entire amount of the principal of such tax 44
has not been received up to the date of such payment; in which event, 45
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interest on the remaining portion of the principal of any such tax shall 46
be computed, as the case may be, from the due date of such tax if no 47
other payment after delinquency has been made or from the last date 48
of payment of interest in full on the whole amount or unpaid balance 49
of the principal of such delinquent tax if previous payment of interest 50
has been made. Each collector shall keep a separate account of such 51
interest and the time when the same has been received and shall pay 52
over the same to the treasurer of the municipality of the collector as a 53
part of such tax. 54
(d) No tax or installment thereof shall be construed to be delinquent 55
under the provisions of this section if [(A)] (1) such tax or installment 56
was paid through a municipal electronic payment service within the 57
time allowed by statute for payment of such tax or installment, or [(B)] 58
(2) the envelope containing the amount due as such tax or installment, 59
as received by the tax collector of the municipality to which such tax is 60
payable, bears a postmark showing a date within the time allowed by 61
statute for the payment of such tax or installment. 62
(e) Any municipality may, by vote of its legislative body [,] or, in the 63
case of a municipality in which the legislative body is a town meeting, 64
its board of selectmen, may require that any delinquent property taxes 65
shall be paid only in cash or by certified check or money order. Any 66
municipality adopting such requirement may provide that such 67
requirement shall only be applicable to delinquency exceeding a 68
certain period in duration as determined by such municipality. 69
[Any] (f) Each municipality shall waive all or a portion of the 70
interest due and payable under this section on a delinquent tax with 71
respect to a taxpayer who has received compensation under chapter 72
968 as a crime victim. 73
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2019 12-146
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Statement of Purpose:
To allow municipalities to approve a lower interest rate applicable to
delinquent property taxes.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline,
except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is
not underlined.]