AGO Opinion Topics: REFUND TAXES PAID WITHOUT PROTEST

(1) When a county treasurer gives notice of the amount of property listed for taxation and of the taxes due, he must give such notice to the person whose name appears on the tax roll as owner, and while he has no obligation to give any notice to a mortgagee or other lien holder of the property, if he does so he is not relieved of the duty of furnishing a tax statement to the owner as indicated on the tax rolls. (2) Where the real property taxes levied against a particular tract of land have been paid without protest by the mortgagee or other lien holder to whom the county treasurer has mailed a notice of taxes due, there is no provision under existing law whereby the property owner, though fully qualified for the fifty dollar tax exemption provided for by chapter 168, Laws of 1965, Ex. Sess., can thereafter obtain a refund of the amount of exemption to which he would have been entitled had his claim been filed before the taxes in question were paid. (3) If the total first-half installment of 1967 real property taxes which was inadvertently paid prior to filing for the aforesaid fifty dollar exemption amounted to less than fifty dollars, a timely exemption claim may still be made, on or before July 28, 1967, as to that portion of the 1967 taxes remaining unpaid which constitutes a part of ". . . the first fifty dollars of real property taxes due and payable . . ." for 1967, with respect to the particular property.