SECOND REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 1158

92ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

 

 

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES PORTWOOD (Sponsor),

LEMBKE AND PAGE (Co-sponsors).Read 1st time January 20, 2004, and copies ordered printed.

STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk

3282L.01I

 

AN ACT

To amend chapter 139, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to installment payments of property taxes in certain counties.




Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:


            Section A. Chapter 139, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 139.054, to read as follows:

            139.054. 1. The governing authority of any county with a charter form of government and with more than one million inhabitants shall allow, by order or ordinance, for the prepayment of all or any part of current real property taxes in equal quarterly installments over a period of time not greater than one year. The county collector shall issue receipts for any installment payments made.

            2. The order or ordinance shall provide the method by which the amount of real property taxes owed for the current tax year in which the payments are to be made shall be estimated. The collector shall submit to the governing body the procedures by which taxes will be collected pursuant to the ordinance or order. The estimate shall be based on the previous tax year's liability. A taxpayer's payment schedule shall be based on the estimate divided by the number of pay periods in which payments are to be made. The taxpayer shall at the end of the tax year pay any amounts owed in excess of the estimate for such year. Any amounts paid in excess of the real property tax owed for such year shall be a credit against the taxpayer's real property taxes due in the following year. The county collector shall provide notice to the taxpayer of any adjustment to the quarterly payments authorized in this section.

            3. Any delinquent real property taxes shall bear interest at the rate provided by section 140.100, RSMo, and shall be subject to fees as provided by law. The prepayments authorized by this section shall be exempt from any penalty or interest provisions provided by law.

            4. Installment payments made at any time during a tax year shall not affect the taxpayer's right to protest the amount of such tax payments under applicable provisions of law.