Volume 3 - Opinions of Counsel SBEA No. 17
Taxes (collection) (receipts) - Real Property Tax Law, § 986:
Collecting officers are required to deliver, pursuant to section 986, tax receipts to the individual taxpayer and to retain a copy of such receipt to be filed with the county treasurer. There is no requirement that receipts for town and county taxes be prepared in triplicate.
Our opinion has been requested as to whether the law requires that a receipt for town and county taxes be prepared in triplicate so that one copy may be presented to the taxpayer, another to the county treasurer, and the third to be filed with the town clerk.
Section 986 of the Real Property Tax Law pertains to tax receipts. Subdivision 1 of section 986 provides, in part, that “[e]very collecting officer shall deliver . . . a receipt to each person paying a tax . . .”. Subdivision 3 of section 986 provides that “[a]t the time of giving such a receipt the collecting officer shall retain a copy thereof which shall be subject to public inspection and shall be filed with his return to the county treasurer or such officer or board to which he makes his return.”
Pursuant to the above quoted section a town collector, when collecting town and county taxes, is required to provide a tax receipt to a taxpayer, and, when the collector makes his return to the county treasurer, he is required to file duplicate tax receipts together with the tax roll with the county treasurer. There is no requirement that another duplicate copy of a tax receipt be filed with the town clerk, and therefore no requirement that a tax receipt for town and county taxes be prepared in triplicate.
April 2, 1973