Judges: WINSTON BRYANT, Attorney General
Filed Date: 8/5/1991
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
The Honorable Bobby Tullis State Representative Box 277 Mineral Springs, AR 71851
Dear Representative Tullis:
This is in response to your request for an opinion on four questions regarding the assessment of property taxes. Your questions will be restated and answered in the order posed.
An initial general discussion of the property tax assessment process will be helpful in addressing your specific questions. The county assessor is given authority to assess real property in his county between the first Monday in January and July 1 of each year. See A.C.A. §
With regard to your first two questions, you note that the county assessor is required to file a report of the assessments of all property within the county with the county clerk on or before the third Monday in August. Your first question is:
(1) What is the deadline for a county assessor to stop making changes to the current year tax books (i.e. '91 to be collected in '92)?
We begin by noting that every tax must be assessed in a manner authorized by law before it becomes a legal charge or lien against the property. Vandergrift v. Lowery,
After the county assessor has turned the tax assessment books over to the county clerk, it appears that the only changes that may be made to those books include adjustments ordered by the county court or the county or state equalization board, the addition of erroneously omitted assessments, and the correction of actual and obvious errors on the tax books and related records. See A.C.A. §§
Your second question is:
(2) May a county assessor make changes to the valuation that are not "actual and obvious errors" that affect the original charge to the county collector for tax books after the county tax books are opened?
As noted in response to your first question, changes may be made to the tax books upon the discovery of errors. See A.C.A. §
(c) The provisions of this section shall be applicable only to the correction of actual and obvious errors on the tax books and related records, with such errors being restricted to extension errors, erroneous property descriptions, classifications, or listings, and shall not be utilized to make any change in the valuation of any real or personal property as shown on the tax books and related records other than a change in valuation necessitated by the correction of actual and obvious errors as provided in this section. In no case shall any reduction in the valuation of any real or personal property be made, except such as shall have been ordered by the county board of equalization, the county court, the circuit court, or the Supreme Court, or be caused by the correction of actual and obvious errors as provided in this section. [Emphasis added.]
The language of this section specifically prohibits changing the valuation of property unless that change is necessitated by the correction of actual and obvious errors or is ordered by the county board of equalization or a court. Thus, it is my opinion that a change in valuation not necessitated by the correction of an actual and obvious error may not be made unless it is ordered by the equalization board or a court.
Your third question is:
(3) Under Arkansas Code Annotated §
26-26-721 , should only delinquent lands not certified to the State Land Office still show values on the current year tax books?
County assessors are required to account for every parcel of real property in the county on the assessment roll, and county clerks must likewise account for every parcel of real property in the county in extending the taxes on the tax books. See A.C.A. §
Your fourth question is:
(4) Is the county clerk obligated to sign and certify the final abstract of the equalization board and the assessment abstract for the Assessment Coordination Division and the Department of Education if applicable tax delinquent lands have not been removed from the assessments?
With respect to this question, you note that A.C.A. §
Assuming these are the documents you are referring to in your question, we must now consider whether the county clerk must sign and/or certify these documents if applicable tax delinquent lands have not been removed from the abstracts. The assessment abstracts in question contain only total assessed values of the real and personal property in the county, upon which property taxes will be based. Thus, the abstracts should not reflect the valuation of land that has been certified to the State Land Office for nonpayment of delinquent taxes, because the state is not required to pay taxes on this property. The abstracts should, however, reflect the value of tax delinquent lands that have not yet been certified to the State Land Office, because taxes are collectible on those lands until they are so certified.1 Thus, it is my opinion that the inclusion of tax delinquent lands in the final abstract of the county equalization board and in the assessment abstract prepared for the Department of Education would not excuse the county clerk from signing and/or certifying those documents to the Assessment Coordination Division and the Department of Education, respectively, unless those lands have been certified to the State Land Office.
The foregoing opinion, which I hereby approve, was prepared by Assistant Attorney General Catherine Templeton.
Sincerely,
Winston Bryant Attorney General