SECT. 35. The tax list committed to the collectors shall be in sub- Form of tax list stance, as follows: for collectors. SECT. 36. The assessors, or other persons empowered to assess the Valuation list taxes in a city or town, shall, at the close of said valuation list, subscribe to be sworn to and take the following oath: "We, (the assessors, or mayor and aldermen, as the case may be, of ,) do hereby solemnly swear that the foregoing list is a full and true list of the names of all persons known to us, who are liable to taxation in (here insert the name of the city or town,) during the present year, and that the real and personal estate contained in said list, and assessed upon each individual in said list, is a full and accurate assessment upon all the property of each individual, liable to taxation, at its full and fair cash value, according to our best knowledge and belief." by assessors. 1853, 319, § 2. sessors omit SECT. 37. Any assessor or other person assessing taxes in a city or Penalty on astown, who omits to take and subscribe the oath prescribed in the pre- ting to take ceding section, shall be punished by a fine of ten dollars; but the omis- oath. sion to take and subscribe said oath shall not prevent the collection of 1857, 306, §§ 1, 2. a tax otherwise legally assessed. collectors, &c. R. S. 7,55 32,34. R. S. 8, § 33. SECT. 38. The assessors shall, within a reasonable time, commit said Assessors to tax list with their warrant to the collector, or if no collector is chosen commit lists to to a constable, or if there is no constable to the sheriff or his deputy, for collection. SECT. 39. The warrant shall specify the duties of the collector as prescribed by law in the collection of taxes, the times when and the persons to whom he shall pay them in, shall be substantially in the form heretofore used, and need not be under seal. SECT. 40. When a warrant issued for the collection of taxes is lost or destroyed, the assessors may issue a new warrant therefor, which shall have the same force and effect as the original warrant. SECT. 41. Towns, at their annual meeting, and city councils of cities may allow a discount of such sums as they think expedient to persons making voluntary payment of their taxes within such periods of time as they prescribe. In such case the collectors shall make such discount accordingly. SECT. 42. When such discount is allowed, the assessors, at the time of committing their warrant to the collector, shall post up in one or more public places within the city or town, notice of the rates of discount. SECT. 43. A person aggrieved by the taxes assessed upon him, may apply to the assessors for an abatement thereof; and, if he makes it appear that he is taxed at more than his just proportion, they shall make a reasonable abatement. SECT. 44. If legal costs have accrued before making such abatement, the person applying for the abatement shall pay the same. 13 Met. 85. Contents and form of war 6 Gray, 387, 502. rant. R. S. 7, § 33. 1 Met. 328. & If Met. 345. warrant is lost, &c., new one may issue. act of R. S. 8, § 51. amend. § 1. R. S. 7, § 35. Discounts. rates to be posted up, R. S. 7, § 36. Abatements. 9 Met. 205. 5 7 Cush. 273. Costs before abatement, &c. R. S. 7, § 38. See § 48. if assessors refuse to abate, &c. SECT. 45. If the assessors refuse to make an abatement to a person, he may, within one month thereafter, make complaint thereof to the county commissioners by filing the same with their clerk, and if upon a R. S. 7, § 39. hearing it appears that the complainant is overrated, the commissioners 6 Pick. 08. shall make such an abatement as they deem reasonable. 7 Cush. 273. 8 Cush. 55. unless, &c. SECT. 46. No person shall have an abatement unless he has filed No abatement with the assessors a list subscribed by him of his estate liable to taxa- R. S. 7, § 40. tion, and made oath that it is full and accurate according to his best knowledge and belief. When such list is not filed within the time 4 Pick. 399. 1853, 300, 3. 1857, 306, § 3. 16214 7 Pick. 106. 21 Pick. 382. 5 Pick. 451, 498. specified by the assessors for bringing it in, no complaint from the judgment of the assessors shall be sustained by the county commissioners, unless they are satisfied that there was good cause why such list was not seasonably brought in. 4 Met. 599. 11 Met. 339. 5 Cush. 97. 8 Cush. 63. for within six months. SECT. 47. No abatement shall be allowed to a person unless he makes application therefor within six months after the date of his tax bill. SECT. 48. A person having an abatement made, shall, if his tax has been paid, be reimbursed out of the treasury of the city or town to the If tax is paid, amount of the abatement allowed, together with all charges, except the legal costs provided for in section forty-four. R. S. 7. § 41. amount of abatement to be paid out of SECT. 49. Every person whose tax is abated, shall be entitled to a town treasury. certificate thereof from the assessors, or clerk of the commissioners, or other proper officer. R. S. 7, § 42. 12 Met. 178. to be responsible only for fidelity, &c. SECT. 50. When a person seven days or more prior to any election gives notice in writing accompanied by satisfactory evidence to the assessors of a city or town, that he was at the time of the last annual assessment of taxes in such place an inhabitant thereof and liable to pay a poll tax, and furnishes under oath a true list of his polls and estate, both real and personal not exempt from taxation, the assessors shall assess him for his polls and estate in the same manner they would have done if such list had been duly brought in; and the assessors shall, five days at least before any election, deposit with the clerk of the place a list of the persons so assessed. The tax thus assessed shall be entered in the tax list of the collector of the city or town, and he shall collect and pay it over as specified in his warrant. SECT. 51. The assessors shall not be responsible for the assessment of a tax in a city, town, parish, religious society, or school district, for which they are assessors, when such tax is assessed by them in pursuance 5 Pick. 451, 498. of a vote for that purpose, certified to them by the clerk or other R. S. 7, § 44. 7 Pick. 106. 21 Pick. 382. 4 Met. 599. 11 Met. 339. Pay of assess ors. R. S. 7, § 45. 3 Met. 431. Taxes, invalid, taxes, may be proper officer of such city, town, parish, religious society, or school district, except for the want of integrity and fidelity on their own part. SECT. 52. Each assessor shall be paid by his city or town one dollar and fifty cents a day, for every whole day that he is employed in that service, with such other compensation as the city or town shall allow. REASSESSMENT OF TAXES. SECT. 53. Every tax, except a poll tax, which is invalid by reason &c., except poll of any error or irregularity in the assessment, and which has not been paid, or which has been recovered back, may be reassessed by the assessors for the time being, to the just amount to which, and upon the estate or to the person to whom, such tax ought at first to have been assessed, whether such person has continued an inhabitant of the same city or to be void to excess. town or not. ILLEGAL ASSESSMENTS. SECT. 54. If through any erroneous or illegal assessment or apporextent of illegal tionment of taxes, a party is assessed more or less than his due propor1859, 118, § 4. tion, the tax and assessment shall be void only to the extent of the See ch. 12, § 56. illegal excess. 31. When name of place has been changed. 33. Sale by auction, of sufficient, &c. 34. Collector may adjourn sale not exceeding 5. Person claiming abatement must produce 35. Deed to be given to purchaser, subject, &c. certificate. Liable to costs. 6. Errors in names not to defeat collection. 7. Distress and sale to pay taxes, except, &c. 8. Distress, how long kept, how advertised, and sold. 9. Sale may be adjourned once. 10. Seizure of shares, how made. 11. Sales of shares seized, how made. 12. Surplus to be returned to owner. 13. After fourteen days, party may be imprisoned. 14. Copy of warrant, &c., to be left with jailer. 15. Persons imprisoned for non-payment of taxes, how discharged. 16. Collectors, when liable to pay tax, &c. 17. may demand aid. Penalty. 18. Persons removing from collector's precinct without paying. 19. Remedy if persons remove, &c., without 20. against executors and administrators. 22 Taxes to be lien on real estate for two 23. reassessed to be a lien, unless, &c. 21. Resident mortgagee of real estate, when to be called upon for taxes. 25. When non-resident appoints attorney, de⚫mand how made. 25. When made, collector to wait two months. 27. Affidavit of collector, &c. Evidence of demand on attorney. 23. Sales of real estate, how advertised. 29. Contents of advertisement. 30. Notices, how posted. When to be recorded. 36. Owner may redeem within two years, &c. 37. SECTION 1. Every collector of taxes, constable, sheriff, or deputy sheriff, receiving a tax list and warrant from the assessors, shall proceed to collect the taxes therein mentioned, according to the warrant. SECT. 2. The collector shall, unless removed from office as hereinafter provided, complete the collection of taxes committed to him, although his term of office expires before such completion. for Collectors to R. S. 7, § 34. collections Best Demand to be R. S. 8, § 3. 1 Met. 328. SECT. 3. Collectors shall before distraining the goods of a person his tax, demand payment thereof from such person, either personally or at his usual place of abode, if to be found within their precincts. SECT. 4. When the credit of a person taxed is considered doubtful by the assessors, they may order the collector forthwith to compel payment by distress or imprisonment, whether the tax is made payable ed forthwith. immediately, at a future day, by instalments, or otherwise. When credit doubtful, taxes R. S. 8, § 12.. produce certifi SECT. 5. If a person claims the benefit of an abatement, he shall Person claiming exhibit to the collector demanding his taxes, a certificate of such abate abatement must ment, from the assessors or other proper officer, as provided in chapter cate. eleven; and shall be liable to pay all costs and officers' fees incurred R. S. 8, § 4. before exhibiting such certificate. Liable to costs. 9 Met. 504. 1867 Errors in names not to defeat collection. R. S. 8, § 5. 6 Met. 474. 7 Gray, 127. Distress and es; except, &c. SECT. 6. If, in the assessors' lists or in their warrant and list committed to the collectors, there is an error in the name of a person taxed, the tax assessed to him may be collected of the person intended to be taxed, if he is taxable and can be identified by the assessors. SECT. 7. If a person refuses or neglects to pay his tax, the collector sale to pay tax shall levy the same by distress or seizure and sale of his goods, including any share or interest he may have as a stockholder in a corporation incorporated under authority of this commonwealth, and excepting the following goods: R. S. 8, § 7. 9 Met. 504. Distress, how advertised and sold. The tools or implements necessary for his trade or occupation; beasts of the plough necessary for the cultivation of his improved lands; military arms, utensils for house-keeping necessary for upholding life, and bedding and apparel necessary for himself and family. SECT. 8. The collector shall keep the goods distrained, at the expense long kept how of the owner, for four days at least, and shall, within seven days after the seizure, sell the same by public auction, for payment of the tax and charges of keeping and sale, having given notice of the sale by posting up a notification thereof in some public place in the city or town, fortyeight hours at least before the sale. R. S. 8, § 8. 1 Met. 328. 13 Met. 85. 11 Cush. 338. Sale may once. R. S. 8, § 9. Seizure of shares, how made. 1846, 195, § 2. Sales of shares seized, how made. SECT. 9. The collector may once adjourn such sale for a time not exceeding three days: he shall forthwith give notice of such adjournment, by posting a notification at the place of sale. SECT. 10. The seizure of a share or other interest in a corporation may be made by leaving with any officer of the corporation, with whom a copy of a writ may by law be left when the share of a stockholder is attached on mesne process, an attested copy of the warrant, with a certificate thereon, under the hand of the collector, setting forth the tax which the stockholder is to pay, and that, upon his neglect or refusal to pay, the collector has seized such share or interest. SECT. 11. The sale of such share or interest shall be made in the manner prescribed by law for the sale of goods by collectors of taxes in 1846, 195, §§ 3, 4. like cases, and also subject to the provisions of sections forty-six and forty-seven of chapter one hundred and thirty-three, respecting sales on executions. 4 Cush. 10. 11 Cush. 338. Surplus to be R. S. 8, § 10. SECT. 12. If the distress or seizure is sold for more than the tax and charges of keeping and sale, the collector shall return the surplus to the owner, upon demand, with an account in writing of the sale and charges. SECT. 13. If a person refuses or neglects for fourteen days after days, party may demand to pay his tax, and the collector cannot find sufficient goods upon which it may be levied, he may take the body of such person and commit him to prison, there to remain until he pays the tax and charges of commitment and imprisonment, or is discharged by order of law. be imprisoned. 7 Gray, 133. left with jailer. R. S. 8, § 13. SECT. 14. When the collector commits a person to prison, he shall rant, &c., to be give the keeper thereof an attested copy of the warrant, with a certificate thereon, under the hand of the collector, setting forth the sum which such person is to pay as his tax, with the cost of taking and committing him, and that upon his having neglected payment for fourteen days, or otherwise, as the case may be, and for want of goods whereof to make distress, he has taken his body. Persons imprisoned for non-payment of charged. SECT. 15. When a person committed to prison for the non-payment of taxes is unable to pay the same, he shall be entitled to his discharge taxes, how dis- in like manner as persons committed on execution. The notice required in such case to be given to the creditor, may be given to either of the assessors or the collector by whom the party was committed. And the assessors and collector, or any of them, may appear and do all things which a creditor might do in case of arrest on execution. 1857, 141, § 24. See Ch. 124. Collectors, when liable to pay, &c. SECT. 16. If such person is discharged, the collector shall be liable to pay the tax with the charges of imprisonment, unless he arrested and committed the party within one year after the tax was committed to him to collect, or unless he is exonerated therefrom by the city, town, R. S. 8, § 50. or parish, to which the tax is due. 3 Met. 152. SECT. 17. A collector when resisted or impeded in the exercise of his Collectors may office, may require any suitable person to aid him therein, and if such demand aid. person refuses to render such aid, he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding R. S. 8, § 6. ten dollars. Penalty. or's precinct, R. S. 8, § 14. 1842, 34. SECT. 18. When a person, after the assessment of a tax upon him, Persons removremoves out of the precinct of the collector without paying his tax, the ing from collectcollector may demand payment thereof wherever such person is found; without paying. and in default of payment the collector may forthwith proceed to collect the tax by making a distress, or by commitment of such person to the prison of the county where he is found; or the collector may issue his warrant to the sheriff of the county or his deputy, or to any constable of the place, where such person is found, directing them to distrain the property or take the body of such person, and to proceed therein in like manner as required of collectors in like cases. remove, R. S. 8, § 15. 6 Mass. 44. 8 Met. 393. SECT. 19. When a person taxed removes as aforesaid, or dies, or Remedy if perneglects to pay his tax for one year after it is committed to the collector, son, ethove or being an unmarried woman, marries, before payment of the tax, the paying. collector may, in his own name, maintain an action of contract therefor 1852, 312. in like manner as for his own debt, and he may for that purpose in like 1859, 171. manner have a process of foreign attachment against any trustee of such 23 Pick. 235. person. SECT. 20. When a tax is assessed upon the personal estate of a deceased person, the collector may maintain an action of contract there- utors and adfor in his own name, as for his own debt, against the executor or administrator; and if a tax is so assessed before the appointment of an executor or administrator, he may enforce it against the estate and its representative after such appointment, in like manner as if the assessment had been made subsequently thereto. against exec ministrators. 1848, 235. 1852, 234. 1852, 312. against persons who are not owners of the real estate R.S. 8, §§ 16, 17. taxed to them. SECT. 21. When a person is taxed for real estate in his occupation, but of which he is not the owner, the collector, after demand of payment, may levy the tax by distress and sale of the cattle, sheep, horses, , swine, or other stock or produce, of such estate, belonging to the owner thereof, which within nine months after such assessment is committed to him shall be found upon the premises, in the same manner as if such stock or produce were the property of the person so taxed; but such demand need not be made if the person on whom the tax is assessed resided within the precinct of the collector at the time of the assessment, and subsequently removes therefrom and remains absent three months. SECT. 22. Taxes assessed on real estate shall constitute a lien thereon Taxes to be for two years after they are committed to the collector; and may with lien on real esall incidental costs and expenses be levied by sale thereof, if the tax is years, &c. not paid within fourteen days after a demand of payment made either 1856, 239, § 1. upon the person taxed or upon any person occupying the estate; but Pick. 15. the collector may sell real estate for taxes after two years have elapsed, unless the estate has been alienated in the mean time. tate for two R. S. 8, § 18. 2 Gray, 185. reassessed, to less, &c. SECT. 23. Taxes reassessed on real estate shall constitute a lien thereon from the time they are committed to the collector, unless the be alien, unestate has been alienated between the first and second assessments; and 1859, 118, §§ 1, 2 may be levied as provided in the preceding section. tate, when to b SECT. 24. If a mortgagee of real estate, situated in the place of his Resident mort residence, previously to the assessment of a tax, gives written notice to gagee of real es the clerk of such place that he holds a mortgage thereon, with a descrip- called upon for tion of the estate, the collector before proceeding to sell it for non-pay- 1848, 166, § 1. ment of taxes shall demand payment of said taxes of the mortgagee, as provided in section twenty-two. taxes. SECT. 25. If a mortgagee or non-resident owner of real estate, pre- When non-resi viously to the assessment of a tax, gives a written authority to some dent appoints |