[ Act No. 1793, October 12, 1907 ]
AN ACT TO AMEND ACT NUMBERED ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-THREE BY PROVIDING A METHOD FOR ENFORCING THE COLLECTION OF THE LAND TAX IN THE CITY OF MANILA.
By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:
Section 1. Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three, as amended, is hereby further amended by adding at the end thereof the following new sections:
"Section 73. Fifteen days after the tax shall become delinquent the city assessor and collector shall prepare and sign a certified copy of the records of his office, showing the persons delinquent in payment of their taxes and the amounts of tax and penalty respectively due from them. He shall proceed at once to seize the personal property of each delinquent, and. unless redeemed as hereinafter provided, to sell at public auction, either at the main entrance of the municipal building or at the place where such property is seized, as he shall determine, so much of the same as shall satisfy the tax, penalty, and costs of seizure and sale, to the highest bidder for cash, after due advertisement by notice posted for ten days at the main entrance of the municipal building and at a public and conspicuous place in the barrio where the property was seized, stating the time, place, and cause of sale. The certified copy of the city assessor and collector's record of delinquents shall be his warrant for his proceedings, and the purchaser at such sale shall acquire an indefeasible title to the property sold. Within two days after the sale the city assessor and collector shall make return of his proceedings and spread it upon his records. Any surplus resulting from the sale, over and above the tax, penalty, and costs, shall be returned to the taxpayer on account of whose delinquency the sale has been made.
"Section 74. The owner of the personal property seized may redeem the same from the collecting officer at any time after seizure and before sale by tendering to him the amount; of the tax, the penalty, and the costs incurred up to the time of tender. The costs to be charged in making such seizure and sale shall only embrace the actual expense of seizure and preservation of the property pending the sale, and no charge shall be imposed for the services of the collecting officer or his deputy.
"Section 75. Taxes and penalties assessed against realty shall constitute a lien thereon, which lien shall be superior to all other liens mortgages, or incumbrances of any kind whatsoever; shall be enforceable against the property whether in the possession of the delinquent or any subsequent owner, and can only be removed by the payment of the tax and penalty, with interest on both at the rate of six per centum per annum from the date of the delinquency. The lien for the taxes shall attach to the real property from the first day of January of the year in which the taxes are due.
"Section 76. In addition to the procedure prescribed in section seventy-five, the city assessor and collector may, upon the warrant of the certified record required in section seventy-three, within twenty days after delinquency, advertise the real estate of the delinquent for sale, or so much thereof as may be necessary to satisfy all public taxes upon said property as above, and costs of sale, for a period of thirty days.
"This provision shall be retroactive so far as to apply to all taxes heretofore assessed but not collected.
"The advertisement shall be by posting a notice at the main entrance of the municipal building and in a public and conspicuous place in the barrio in which the real estate lies, and by publication once a week for three weeks in a newspaper of general circulation published in said city, if any there be. The advertisement shall contain a statement of the amount of the taxes and penalties so due and the time and place of sale, the name of the taxpayer against whom the taxes are levied, and a short description of the land to ho sold. At any time before the day fixed for the sale the taxpayer may discontinue all proceedings by paying the taxes, penalties, and interest to the city assessor and collector. If he does not do so the sale shall proceed and shall be held either at the main entrance of the municipal building or on the premises to be sold, as the city assessor and collector may determine. Within five days after the sale the city assessor and collector shall make return of the proceedings and spread it on his records. The purchaser at the sale shall ca, receive a certificate from the city assessor and collector from his records, showing the proceedings of the sale, describing the property sold, stating the name of the purchaser, and setting out the exact amount of all public taxes, penalties, and interest.
"Section 77. Within one year from the date of sale the delinquent taxpayer, or anyone for him, shall have the right of paying to the city assessor and collector the amount of the public taxes, penalties. and interest thereon from the date of delinquency to the date of sale, together with interest on said purchase price at the rate of fifteen per centum per annum from the date of purchase to the date of redemption; and such payment shall entitle the person paying to the delivery of the certificate issued to the purchaser and a certificate from the city assessor and collector that he has thus redeemed the land, and the city assessor and collector shall forthwith pay over to the purchaser the amount by which such land has thus been redeemed, and the land thereafter shall be free from the lien of such taxes and penalties.
"Section 78. In case the taxpayer shall not redeem the land sold as above provided within one year from the date of sale, the city assessor and collector shall, as grantor, execute a deed in form and deed to effect sufficient under the laws of the Islands to convey to the purchaser so much of the land against which the taxes have been assessed as has been sold, free from all liens of any kind whatsoever, and the deeds shall succinctly recite all the proceedings upon which the validity of the sale depends.
"Section 79. In case there is no bidder at the public sale of such land who offers a sum sufficient to pay the taxes, penalties, and costs, the city assessor and collector shall declare the land forfeited to the municipality, and shall make, within two days thereafter, a return of his proceedings and the forfeiture, which shall be spread upon the records of his office.
"Section 80. Within one year from the date of such forfeiture thus declared the taxpayer, or anyone for him may redeem said land, as above provided in eases where the land is sold. But, if the land is not thus redeemed within the year, the forfeiture shall become absolute and the city assessor and collector shall execute a deed, similar in form and having the same effect as the deed required to be made by him in case of a sale, conveying the land to the municipality. The deed shall lie recorded as required by law for other land titles and shall lie filed with the municipal secretary, who shall enter it in this record of municipal property.
"Section 81. The assessment of a tax shall constitute a lawful indebtedness from the taxpayer to the municipality which may be enforced by a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction, and this remedy shall be in addition to all the other remedies provided by law.
"Section 82. No court shall entertain any suit, assailing the validity of a tax assessed under this Act until the taxpayer shall have paid, under protest, the taxes assessed against him, nor shall any court declare any tax invalid by reason of irregularities or informalities in the proceedings of the officers charged with the assessment or collection of the taxes, or of the failure to perform their duties within the time herein specified for their performance, unless the substantial tights of the tax payer; nor shall any court declare any tax assessed under the provisions of this Act invalid except upon condition that the taxpayer shall pay the just amount of his tax as determined by the court in the pending proceeding.
"Section 83. No court shall entertain any suit assailing the validity of a tax sale of land under this Act until the taxpayer shall have paid into the court the amount for which the land was sold, together with interest at the rate of fifteen per cent inn per annum upon that sum from the date of sale lo the time of instituting suit. The shall belong to the purchaser at the tax ed invalid, and shall be returned to the this action.
"Section 84. No court shall declare any such sale invalid by reason of any irregulaties or informalities in the proceedings of the officer charged with duty of making the sale or by reason of failure by him to perform his duties within the time herein specified for their performance, unless such irregulaties, informalities, or failure shall have impaired the substantial rights of the taxpayer.
"Section 85. Any officer charged with the duty of assessing real property who shall willfully omit from the tax lists real property which he knows to ho lawfully taxable shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand pesos, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the court.
"Section 86. Any officer charged with the duty of listing or collecting license or privilege taxes who shall will fully omit to list or collect the same or any part thereof shall ho guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to the penalties provided in section eighty-five.
"Section 87. Any officer charged with any duty in connection with the assessment or collection of taxes who shall accept a bribe to influence his official action therein shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to the penalties provided in section eighty-five.1aшphi1
"Section 88. Any person offering a bribe to an officer charged with any duty in connection with assessing or collecting taxes for the purpose of influencing his official action shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to the penalties provided in section eighty-five."
Section 2. Section fifty-six of said Act is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 56. Tin: board of tax appeals shall meet on the second Monday in January of each year and shall hear all appeals duly powers transmitted to it, and shall decide the same forthwith. It shall have authority to cause to be amended the listing and valuation of the property in respect to which any complaint is made by order signed by the board or a majority thereof, and transmit it to the city assessor and collector, who shall amend the tax list in conformity with said order. It shall also have power to revise and correct, with the approval of the Executive Secretary first had, any and all erroneous or unjust assessments and valuations for taxation, and make a correct and just, assessment, and state the true valuation in Philippine currency, in each case where it decides that the assessment, previously made is erroneous or unjust. The list when so corrected shall be as lawful and valid for all purposes as though the assessment had been made within the time herein prescribed. Such reassessment, and revaluation shall be made on due notice to the individual concerned and he shall be entitled to be heard by the hoard of tax appeals before any reassessment or revaluation is made. If he is dissatisfied with the action of the board of tax appeals he Appeal. may appeal to the Executive Secretary, whose decision shall be final. The Executive Secretary may also, by direction of the Governor-General on his own initiative, make such revision or revaluation as in his opinion the circumstances justify."
Section 3. The public, good, requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.
Section 4. This Act, shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted. October 12, 1907.
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