S-2234

AN ACT Relating to collection agencies used to collect unpaid taxes; and amending RCW 82.32.265 and 82.32.210.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 82.32.265 and 1987 c 80 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The department may retain, by written contract, collection agencies licensed under chapter 19.16 RCW or licensed under the laws of another state or the District of Columbia for the purpose of collecting ((~~from sources outside the state of Washington~~)) taxes including interest and penalties thereon imposed under this title and RCW 84.33.041.

(2) Only accounts represented by tax warrants filed in the superior court of a county in the state as provided by RCW 82.32.210 may be assigned to a collection agency, and no such assignment may be made unless the department has previously notified or has attempted to notify the taxpayer of his or her right to petition for correction of assessment within the time provided and in accordance with the procedures set forth in chapter 82.32 RCW.

(3) Collection agencies assigned accounts for collection under this section shall have only those remedies and powers that would be available to them as assignees of private creditors. However, nothing in this section limits the right to enforce the liability for taxes lawfully imposed under the laws of this state in the courts of another state or the District of Columbia as provided by the laws of such jurisdictions and RCW 4.24.140 and 4.24.150.

(4) The account of the taxpayer shall be credited with the amounts collected by a collection agency before reduction for reasonable collection costs, including attorneys fees, that the department is authorized to negotiate on a contingent fee or other basis.

Sec. 2. RCW 82.32.210 and 1998 c 311 s 8 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) If any fee, tax, increase, or penalty or any portion thereof is not paid within fifteen days after it becomes due, the department of revenue may issue a warrant in the amount of such unpaid sums, together with interest thereon from the date the warrant is issued until the date of payment. If, however, the department of revenue believes that a taxpayer is about to cease business, leave the state, or remove or dissipate the assets out of which fees, taxes or penalties might be satisfied and that any tax or penalty will not be paid when due, it may declare the fee, tax or penalty to be immediately due and payable and may issue a warrant immediately. The department may include in any such warrant any reasonable fee paid or to be paid to a collection agency retained under RCW 82.32.265 or other authority.

(a) Interest imposed before January 1, 1999, shall be computed at the rate of one percent of the amount of the warrant for each thirty days or portion thereof.

(b) Interest imposed after December 31, 1998, shall be computed on a daily basis on the amount of outstanding tax or fee at the rate as computed under RCW 82.32.050(2). The rate so computed shall be adjusted on the first day of January of each year for use in computing interest for that calendar year. As used in this subsection, "fee" does not include an administrative filing fee such as a court filing fee and warrant fee.

(2) The department shall file a copy of the warrant with the clerk of the superior court of any county of the state in which real and/or personal property of the taxpayer may be found. Upon filing, the clerk shall enter in the judgment docket, the name of the taxpayer mentioned in the warrant and in appropriate columns the amount of the fee, tax or portion thereof and any increases and penalties for which the warrant is issued and the date when the copy is filed, and thereupon the amount of the warrant so docketed shall become a specific lien upon all goods, wares, merchandise, fixtures, equipment, or other personal property used in the conduct of the business of the taxpayer against whom the warrant is issued, including property owned by third persons who have a beneficial interest, direct or indirect, in the operation of the business, and no sale or transfer of the personal property in any way affects the lien.

(3) The lien shall not be superior, however, to bona fide interests of third persons which had vested prior to the filing of the warrant when the third persons do not have a beneficial interest, direct or indirect, in the operation of the business, other than the securing of the payment of a debt or the receiving of a regular rental on equipment. The phrase "bona fide interests of third persons" does not include any mortgage of real or personal property or any other credit transaction that results in the mortgagee or the holder of the security acting as trustee for unsecured creditors of the taxpayer mentioned in the warrant who executed the chattel or real property mortgage or the document evidencing the credit transaction.

(4) The amount of the warrant so docketed shall thereupon also become a lien upon the title to and interest in all other real and personal property of the taxpayer against whom it is issued the same as a judgment in a civil case duly docketed in the office of the clerk. The warrant so docketed shall be sufficient to support the issuance of writs of garnishment in favor of the state in the manner provided by law in the case of judgments wholly or partially unsatisfied.