March, 1936] Rural Real Estate Tax Delinquency in N. H. 17 



Buyers and Redemptions 



The buyers of tax delinquent lands may be either public or private. Ap- 

 proximately 86 per cent of the properties sold for taxes from 1929 through 

 1932 were bought by tax collectors for their respective towns, the remainder 

 by private buyers. In some instances a private buyer made it a regular prac- 

 tice to buy these delinquent lands for the town, the town later taking tax 

 title to them if not redeemed. Available records show that only 46.5 per 

 cent of the delinquent properties sold during this period were ever redeemed. 

 Undoubtedly many tax sales were redeemed but were not reported to the 

 Register of Deeds. It is questionable whether towns are carrying so large a 

 number of properties under tax title year after year without executing a tax- 

 deed. The schedules showed only 45 tax deeds previous to 1932. During 

 this year, as a result of new legislation, there were 29 executed, while in 1933 

 the number jumped to 90 in approximately two-thirds of the towns. 



Summary and Conclusions 



The officials of many towns have been found to be negligent in the ad- 

 ministration of tax laws. Irregularities in local practices with respect to 

 the collection of taxes, more particularly those concerned with the advertise- 

 ment and sale of delinquent properties, afifect the comparability of the data 

 assembled for this project. Further study is needed along this line to de- 

 termine the exact extent and nature of these practices in order to recommend 

 a corrective procedure with respect to a more uniform tax system. A uni- 

 form classification of the tax-delinquent properties would greatly assist the 

 State Tax Commission in analyzing tax delinquency with respect to type of 

 lands and class of people most afifected. Definite steps should be taken to 

 require a uniform procedure for advertising delinquent properties and to 

 require that all tax books become the property of the respective towns. 



Much of the tax delinquency and sale of rural real estate was of short 

 duration, being repeatedly delinquent or sold for more than one year, but 

 only for one year at a time. Thus the increase in each year's delinquency 

 or sales over the previous year's figures are of major importance in that 

 they more nearly represent a new delinquency and indicate the increasing 

 burden of property taxes on rural people. 



Tax advertisements, in 92 per cent of the towns in all counties except 

 Merrimack and Sullivan, nearly doubled from 1928 to 1931, the peak year, 

 mounting at the rate of $30,000 per year. There was a decline in 1932 from 

 1931. due more to a lower average tax rate than to less delinquent properties. 

 Delinquency was apparently most severe in Coos, Grafton, Rockingham and 

 Belknap Counties. Had the entire State been surveyed on the same basis, 

 tax advertisements for the 1932 levy would have approximated 260,000 

 acres of land and involved $180,000 of tax money. More than three-fourths 

 of the delinquent properties were classed as farm land with buildings. This 

 class of lands comprised nearly four-fifths of the delinquent land area and 

 nine-tenths of the total assessed value of all delinquent properties. 



Two-thirds of the advertisements for the 1931 levy went to sale in 1932 

 as compared with about 56 per cent for other years, further distinguishing 

 1931 as an especially burdensome year. The value of tax sales for all count- 

 ies in 1932 were 232 per cent of those in 1929. This is further evidence that 



