March, 1936] Rural Real Estate Tax Delinquency in N. H. 7 



would advertise and sell delinquent properties assessed against non-residents 

 sooner than those assessed against residents. While at one time the tax laws 

 differentiated between resident and non-resident property owners, all are 

 now required to be treated alike with respect to the levying and collecting 

 of taxes. On these and many other points, the State Tax Commission has 

 been for the past few years waging a campaign of education which is bring- 

 ing about good results. 



Some towns advertised as late as June following the year of levy. Obvi- 

 ously the longer a collector waits to advertise delinquent properties, the 

 more likely will an appreciable number of these delinquencies be paid before 

 the date of advertising, and the less likely is it that these dehnquencies will 

 be paid beween the date of advertising and the date of sale. Thus, when 

 tax delinquency and tax sales are measured by those properties reported 

 to the County Register of Deeds, the results are not comparable between 

 tax units. 



Penalties Not Always Enforced. Whereas most town officials comply 

 well with the State statutes concerning penalties, others either make no 

 charge or vary from the State laws with respect to applying these penalties. 

 Most towns have regularly collected interest from December 1 on taxes levied 

 against property not advertised or sold. A few towns charged interest from 

 some later date, and others failed to penalize the tax payer if the taxes were 

 paid before the property was advertised. In other cases there was no charge 

 for carrying the property after sale, taking only the amount due at the time 

 of sale. In one instance the collector charged some tax payers 10 per cent 

 interest and others nothing. In another instance, each delinquent was 

 charged the same amount of interest plus costs regardless of the amount of 

 taxes due, and then the property was sold on this basis. The selectmen in 

 two towns ruled that no interest was to be charged anyone whose taxes were 

 paid before sale, and in another instance they ruled out the interest charge at 

 the time of redemption after sale. All of these variations affect the amount 

 of delinquent taxes for which the property is advertised or sold. Through the 

 joint eft'orts of the Tax Collectors' Association and the State Tax Commis- 

 sion a decided improvement has been made in the matter of enforcing the 

 collection of interest on delinquent accounts. In some instances town meet- 

 ings and boards of selectmen have assumed the powers vested in the Legis- 

 lature and have attempted to either set their own rates of interest or to 

 instruct the collector to waive all interest collections. When these cases have 

 been reported to the Tax Commission corrective measures have been taken 

 and the State law cited for the instruction of the town officials and others 

 concerned. 



Tax Deeds. Towns in general have been reluctant to execute deeds of real 

 estate sold and not redeemed. Most delinquent properties were held under 

 tax title until 1932 when it became mandatory that tax collectors deliver 

 a deed for all real estate sold for non-payment of taxes in 1930 or prior to 

 that date, the results of which have been previously explained. 



Despite these irregularities the records of many towns were complete, 

 systematic, and accurate. Many collectors were found to be zealous in 

 discharging their duties in strict conformity with the statutes. The State 

 Tax Commission has found a very evident willingness on the part of many 



