118 



STATION BULLETIN 346 



APPENDIX 7 



TAX DELINQUENCY 



It is the collector (not the town meeting) who usually determines 

 the date of the tax sale. Some collectors hold their tax sale during 

 January in order to "clean up their books" and show no uncollected 

 taxes at the end of the town fiscal year. January 31. This group be- 

 lieves there is no gain to either the town or the taxpayer from a de- 

 layed sale. On the other hand, many collectors feel that the sale 

 should be held as late as the law permits in order to make it easier for 

 the taxpayer. 



Based on the date of the tax sale, there are three groups of towns : 



1. Those in which the sale is held not later than the end of the 

 fiscal year, usually during the latter part of January. 



2. Those in which the sale is held after January 31 but not later 

 than July 1. the permanent lien date (until 1939). usually dur- 

 ing the latter part of June. 



3. Those in which the sale is held after July 1 but not later than 

 October 1. the new lien date, usually during the latter part of 

 September. 



Of 89 rural towns, 20 fall in the first group, 12 in the second 

 group, and 57. or nearly two-thirds, fall in Group 3 (Table 1). 

 Tax collectors in the Group 1 towns collected all except 5.0 percent of 

 the amounts stated in their warrants by the end of the fiscal year, 

 compared with 12.4 and 21.2 percent, respectively, for groups 2 and 3 

 which had not yet held their sales. At this time, January 31, the col- 

 lectors of the first group had already held their tax sale which 

 amounted to 4.5 percent of the amount of the levies. The difference 

 between 5.0 percent and 4.5 percent is partly due to uncollected poll 

 taxes of nonowners of -real estate. For groups 2 and 3, only 3.3 per- 

 cent of the levies was represented in the tax sales. But there is a lapse 

 of eight months between the tax sales of Group 1 towns and those of 

 Group 3, during which time some of the property sold in January 

 was vmdoubtedly redeemed. Apparently the tax sale is effective as a 

 weapon to eliminate chronic delinquency. Undoubtedly there are lo- 



Table 1. Effect of Time of Tax Sale on Amount of Tax Delinquency, 89 

 Rural Towns, New Hampshire, 1938* 



Time of tax sale Number 



during 1938 of 



for the 1937 levy towns 



Average 

 tax rate 



Amount 



of levy 



per town 



Percent Percent 

 of levy of levy 

 uncollected in tax 

 January 31 sale 



Before February 1 20 $3.49 $23,593 5.0 4.5 



February 1 to July 1 12 3.19 29,390 12.4 3.3 



After July 1 57 3.29 24,038 21.2 3.3 



All towns 89 $3.32 $24,659 16.3 3.6 



* Data obtained from the books at the offices of the registers of deeds and from town reports. 



