S-0929.1 _______________________________________________
SENATE BILL 5504
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State of Washington 53rd Legislature 1993 Regular Session
By Senator Williams
Read first time 02/01/93. Referred to Committee on Government Operations.
AN ACT Relating to delinquent tax rates; and reenacting and amending RCW 84.56.020.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW 84.56.020 and 1991 c 245 s 16 and 1991 c 52 s 1 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
(1) The county treasurer shall be the receiver and collector of all taxes extended upon the tax rolls of the county, whether levied for state, county, school, bridge, road, municipal or other purposes, and also of all fines, forfeitures or penalties received by any person or officer for the use of his or her county. All taxes upon real and personal property made payable by the provisions of this title shall be due and payable to the treasurer on or before the thirtieth day of April and shall be delinquent after that date: PROVIDED, That each tax statement shall include a notice that checks for payment of taxes may be made payable to "Treasurer of . . . . . . County" or other appropriate office, but tax statements shall not include any suggestion that checks may be made payable to the name of the individual holding the office of treasurer nor any other individual: PROVIDED FURTHER, That when the total amount of tax or special assessments on personal property or on any lot, block or tract of real property payable by one person is thirty dollars or more, and if one-half of such tax be paid on or before the thirtieth day of April, the remainder of such tax shall be due and payable on or before the thirty-first day of October following and shall be delinquent after that date: PROVIDED FURTHER, That when the total amount of tax or special assessments on any lot, block or tract of real property payable by one person is thirty dollars or more, and if one-half of such tax be paid after the thirtieth day of April but before the thirty-first day of October, together with the applicable interest and penalty on the full amount of such tax, the remainder of such tax shall be due and payable on or before the thirty-first day of October following and shall be delinquent after that date.
(2) Delinquent taxes under this section are
subject to a variable rate of interest ((at the rate of twelve
percent per annum)) computed on a monthly basis from the date of
delinquency until paid. For the purposes of this section, the rate of
interest to be charged the taxpayer is the average of federal three-month
treasury bill rates plus two percentage points. The rate shall be computed by
taking an arithmetical average to the nearest percentage point of the
three-month treasury bill rates for the months of January, April, July, and
October as published by the United States secretary of the treasury.
Interest shall be calculated at the rate in effect at the time of payment of
the tax, regardless of when the taxes were first delinquent. In addition,
delinquent taxes under this section are subject to penalties as follows:
(a) A penalty of three percent shall be assessed on the amount of tax delinquent on June 1st of the year in which the tax is due.
(b) An additional penalty of eight percent shall be assessed on the total amount of tax delinquent on December 1st of the year in which the tax is due.
(3) Subsection (2) of this section notwithstanding, no interest or penalties may be assessed for the period April 30, 1991, through December 31, 1991, on delinquent 1991 taxes which are imposed on personal residences owned by military personnel who participated in the situation known as "Operation Desert Shield," "Operation Desert Storm," or any following operation from August 2, 1990, to a date specified by an agency of the federal government as the end of such operations.
(4) For purposes of this chapter, "interest" means both interest and penalties.
(5) All collections of interest on delinquent taxes shall be credited to the county current expense fund; but the cost of foreclosure and sale of real property, and the fees and costs of distraint and sale of personal property, for delinquent taxes, shall, when collected, be credited to the operation and maintenance fund of the county treasurer prosecuting the foreclosure or distraint or sale; and shall be used by the county treasurer as a revolving fund to defray the cost of further foreclosure, distraint and sale for delinquent taxes without regard to budget limitations.
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