House Bill 1595

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 85-11-21, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THE TIME WITHIN WHICH THE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE MAY TAKE ACTION TO COLLECT AGAINST A TAX LIEN FOR A FINALLY DETERMINED TAX LIABILITY; TO AMEND SECTION 31-19-27, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT A DOUBTFUL CLAIM IS A CLAIM FOR WHICH A NOTICE OF TAX LIEN HAS BEEN ENROLLED IN THE UNIFORM STATE TAX LIEN REGISTRY FOR A FINALLY DETERMINED TAX LIABILITY AND FOR WHICH THE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE IS PROHIBITED FROM TAKING ANY FURTHER ACTION FOR COLLECTION AGAINST THE TAX LIEN FOR SUCH LIABILITY; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

SECTION 1. Section 85-11-21, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

85-11-21. All tax liens currently enrolled appearing on the judgment rolls of the counties of this state as of January 1, 2015, and which the department does not show as satisfied or as issued in error and which were last enrolled or reenrolled on the judgment rolls within seven (7) years before January 1, 2015, shall be immediately enrolled on the tax lien registry on January 1, 2015, and shall have the force and effect of a judgment on all real and personal property belonging to the debtor anywhere in the state for a duration of seven (7) years effective from the date of the enrollment on the tax lien registry unless and until such time as either the notice of tax lien is released or the department reenrolls the tax lien in the tax lien registry. However, for all tax liens initially enrolled on the tax lien registry on or after July 1, 2024, and reenrolled thereafter, if initially enrolled on or after July 1, 2024, the department shall not take any action to collect against a tax lien for a finally determined tax liability more than ten (10) years after the date that the tax lien for such liability was initially enrolled on the tax lien registry. For all tax liens initially enrolled and/or reenrolled on the tax lien registry before July 1, 2024, and appearing on the tax lien registry on such date, the department shall not take any action after July 1, 2034, to collect against a tax lien for such a finally determined tax liability.

SECTION 2. Section 31-19-27, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

31-19-27. (1) A doubtful claim of the state, or of the county, city, town, village, or levee board is one for which judgment has been rendered and for the collection of which the ordinary process of law has been ineffectual; debts due by drainage districts or other taxing districts or sinking funds to counties under the Rehabilitation Act of 1928, being Chapter 88, Laws of 1928, and Chapter 16 of the Acts of the Special Session of 1931; those debts due counties by drainage districts, which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation has heretofore refused to refinance; those debts due a municipal utility system as authorized under Section 31-19-30; debts due for sixteenth section township school fund loans made to churches, where the board of supervisors finds that the value of the security given therefor is insufficient or inadequate to pay or satisfy the principal and interest of said loan, and when the church repays the principal of said loan; and debts due by counties and townships to drainage districts for drainage district assessments or taxes levied and assessed upon sixteenth section lands.

(2) For the purposes of Section 31-19-30, a doubtful claim is (a) one for which a notice of tax lien has been enrolled in the Uniform State Tax Lien registry for a finally determined tax liability and for the collection of which the ordinary process of law has been ineffectual and/or (b) one for which a notice of tax lien has been enrolled in the Uniform State Tax Lien registry for a finally determined tax liability and for which the Department of Revenue is prohibited under Section 85-11-21 from taking any action for collection against the tax lien for such liability.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2024.