Penalties

SECTION 12-45-180. Penalties on delinquent taxes; collection; execution.

(A) When the taxes and assessments or any portion of the taxes and assessments charged
against any property or person on the duplicate for the current fiscal year are not paid
before the sixteenth day of January or thirty days after the mailing of tax notices,
whichever occurs later, the county auditor shall add a penalty of three percent on the
county duplicate and the county treasurer shall collect the penalty. If the taxes,
assessments, and penalty are not paid before the second day of the next February , an
additional penalty of seven percent must be added by the county auditor on the county
duplicate and collected by the county treasurer. If the taxes, assessments, and penalties are
not paid before the seventeenth day of the next March, an additional penalty of five
percent must be added by the county auditor on the county duplicate and collected by the
county treasurer. If the taxes, assessments, and penalties are not paid before the
seventeenth day of March, the county treasurer shall issue his tax execution to the
officer authorized and directed to collect delinquent taxes, assessments, penalties, and
costs for their collection as provided in Chapter 51 of this title and they must be
collected as required by that chapter. The United States postmark is the determining date for
mailed payments. If the county treasurer determines by proper evidence that the mailing of a
tax payment was improperly postmarked, and this error results in the imposition of a penalty
provided in this subsection, then the penalty imposed may be waived by the county
treasurer.

(B) If title to real property is transferred during a tax year and the records of the county
indicate that the tax notice was mailed or otherwise forwarded to the prior owner and the
current owner received no timely notice of the tax due on the property, the treasurer shall
waive any penalties imposed pursuant to subsection (A) of this section.