Definitions

All warrants outstanding and unpaid for a period of two or more years, as of the last day of December of each year, are void. No individual, bank, trust company, building and loan association, or any other financial institution may honor, cash, or accept for payment or deposit any such warrant or check which may be presented for payment and which has been issued and outstanding for a period of two (2) or more years as of the last day of December of any year. This law further provides that the treasurer within sixty (60) days thereafter shall prepare a list in triplicate of all such warrants, showing the date of issue of each warrant, the fund upon which it was drawn, the name of the payee, the amount of the warrant, and the total amount of the warrants for each fund. The original copy of such list shall be filed with the county board of finance, the duplicate with the county auditor and the triplicate copy retained by the treasurer. Upon receipt of such list, the county auditor shall issue an application to pay, receipt and quietus for such warrants, in the same manner as for any other receipt, and the warrants shall thereupon be removed by the treasurer from the outstanding list. [IC 5-11-10.5]

Every public officer in this state, who receives or distributes public funds, shall keep a cash book wherein there shall be entered daily, by item, all receipts of public funds. The cash book shall be balanced daily, shall show funds on hand at the close of each day, and shall be a public record open to public inspection. [IC 5-13-5-1] The Treasurer's Daily Balance of Cash and Depositories, Form 47, is the record prescribed to enable the treasurer to comply with IC 5-13-5-1. It reflects the daily receipts and disbursements, total amount of cash and investments on hand, and a proof of the financial condition of the office at the close of each day. The record is designed to be posted "daily," with a separate page for each day. The left side of the page shows the total amount of money for which the treasurer is accountable (charges) and the right side of the page shows the money on deposit, invested or on hand (credits), as proof of the financial condition.

No person shall be elected or appointed as a treasurer who is not an elector of the county, nor who has not been an inhabitant thereof, during one year next preceding appointment. (Article 6, Section 4, Indiana Constitution) Each treasurer must reside within his/her respective county and shall keep his/her respective office at such place therein, and perform such duties, as directed by law. [Article 6, Section 6, Indiana Constitution)

The term of office is fixed at four years and no person is eligible to the office of treasurer more than eight years in any period in twelve years. (Article 6, Section 2, Indiana Constitution)

The treasurer is the financial officer of the county and, as such, is vested with the authority and is charged with the duty of collecting all taxes and assessments which are payable to the county, pursuant to statute. The tax duplicates are delivered to the treasurer by the county auditor on or before March 15 of each year, listing each taxpayer, a description of the property assessed, and the amount of tax. [IC 6-1.1-22-3] General property taxes are payable at any time after the first day of January of each year, and are payable in two equal installments. The first installment becomes delinquent after the tenth day of May and the second installment becomes delinquent after the tenth day of November unless collection date is impacted by a weekend or a holiday.

On or before July 1 of each year, the county treasurer shall certify to the county auditor, a list of real property on which either any property taxes or special assessments certified to the county auditor for collection by the county treasurer from the prior year’s spring installment or before are delinquent as determined under IC 6-1.1-37-10 or any unpaid costs from a prior tax sale. The county auditor shall maintain a list of all eligible property. The sale must take place on or after August 1 and before November 1 of each year.

A taxpayer is entitled to a validated receipt upon request. When any person other than the owner pays any tax or special assessment, the treasurer shall, upon demand of such taxpayer, provide a receipt in a form prescribed or approved by the State Board of Accounts. [IC 6-1.1-22-12]

A payment to the county treasurer is considered to have been paid by the due date if the payment is:

1. received on or before the due date to the county treasurer or a collecting agent appointed by the county treasurer; or 2. deposited in the United States mail: A. properly addressed to the principal office of the county treasurer; B. with sufficient postage; and C. certified or postmarked by the United States postal services as mailed on or before the due date. 3. deposited with a nationally recognized express parcel carrier and is: A. properly addressed to the principal office of the county treasurer; and B. verified by the express parcel carrier as: (i) paid in full for final delivery; and (ii) received on or before the due date. “Postmarked” does not mean the date printed by a postage meter that affixes postage to the envelope or package containing a payment. [IC 6-1.1-37-10]

TAX LIABILITY UNDER TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS ($25)

A county council may adopt an ordinance to require a person to pay his property tax liability in one (1) installment, if the tax liability for a particular year is less than twenty-five dollars ($25). If the county council has adopted such an ordinance, then whenever a tax statement mailed shows that the person's property tax liability for a year is less than twenty-five dollars ($25) for the property covered by that statement, the tax liability for that year is due in one (1) installment on May 10 of that year [IC 6-1.1-7-7 and IC 6-1.1-22-9]. The ordinance adopted by the county council should designate which property tax (real estate, personal, or mobile home) the payment applies to. A single ordinance requiring all three types to be paid by May 10 would be proper.

New tax duplicates for general property taxes are prepared each year by the county auditor, and are to be delivered to the treasurer on or before March 15, for collection of taxes during the year. When delivered to the treasurer, the duplicates show the name of each taxpayer, description of the property assessed, assessed valuation, exemptions and deductions and the taxes payable. [IC 6-1.1-22-3] General property taxes are payable in two equal installments. The first installment becomes delinquent after the tenth day of May and the second installment becomes delinquent after the tenth day of

November. Most counties now store an electronic copy of their duplicate on their server and back up to some type of offsite storage.

On or before June 20 annually, the treasurer shall settle with the county auditor the amount of the taxes which has been collected. [IC 6-1.1-27-1] The treasurer shall certify to the county auditor on County Form 49TC (Revised 1984) prescribed by the State Board of Accounts as to the correctness of credits for cash collected in each taxing district appearing on the tax duplicate and such other collections as are now or may hereafter be provided by law. The treasurer must also deliver excise tax reconciliation.

On or before December 20, annually, the treasurer shall make settlement with the county auditor. Such settlement shall be for all taxes collected during the current year, the treasurer receiving credit therein for the amount of taxes which were settled in May. The treasurer shall also prepare and file with the county auditor the Treasurer's Certificate of Collections, Form 49TC. The treasurer must also deliver excise tax reconciliation.

On or before June 1 and December 1 of each year (or more frequently if the county legislative body adopts an ordinance requiring additional certifications) the disbursing officer of each county, township, city, town, school corporation, other subdivision of local government, state, and each state educational institution shall certify to the treasurer of their respective counties, the names and addresses of all persons who have money due them for salaries, wages or for any other reason from such subdivision of government. Upon the receipt of such names and addresses, the treasurer shall search the records to ascertain if any person so certified is delinquent in the payment of property taxes. [IC 6-1.1-22-14]

RETURNED CHECKS – NON SUFFICIENT FUNDS (under review by SBOA)

An extended effort shall be made by the treasurer to recover funds from checks returned by the depositories as uncollectible. During the process of

collecting, the return checks shall be carried as a cash item and the tax duplicate so noted. DO NOT REMOVE OR DELETE THE PAYMENT ON THE TAX DUPLICATE.

The treasurer should immediately notify the maker or drawer of the returned check. We recommend you develop a form letter detailing the procedures and consequences of not making the returned check good. Contact by telephone is usually more expedient; however you should probably follow up your verbal conversation with the form letter. If the drawer comes in to pay make sure you only accept cash, certified check or money order. The amount necessary to redeem the returned check is:

1. The amount of the returned check

2. The actual charge by the financial institution

3. An amount not to exceed twenty dollars

In order to collect #3 above, the board of county commissioners will need to enact a Home Rule Ordinance establishing this returned check fee. When it is determined that the return item is uncollectible, the treasurer shall attach all related documents to a regular claim to be presented to the board of county commissioners, with an explanation. Upon the commissioner's approval of payment from the general fund, without appropriation, the county warrant is placed in the cash drawer to replace the uncollectible item and deposited as other checks. The amount of tax shall be recharged on the proper duplicate by the auditor. The amount reimbursed to the treasurer shall be deducted from the amount for apportionment in the appropriate taxing district in the next December settlement and returned to the county general fund. This amount should be shown on line 39 of the apportionment and settlement sheets as "reimbursements to county treasurer for bad checks." IC 26-2-7-5 allows counties to pursue collection of these returned checks through the courts.

IC 26-2-7-5 states in part: "A person…is also liable for all of the following:

(1) Interest at the rate of eighteen percent (18%) per annum…

(2) Court costs…

(3) Reasonable attorney's fees…

(4) Actual travel expenses…to…

(A) An employee or agent of the holder to file papers and attend court proceedings…

(B) Provide witnesses to testify in court…

(5) A reasonable amount to compensate the holder for time used to…

(A) File papers and attend court proceedings…

(B) Travel to and from activities…

(6) Actual direct and indirect expenses incurred by the holder to compensate employees and agents for time used to…

(A) File papers and attend court proceedings…

(B) Travel to and from activities…

(7) All other reasonable cost of collection."

IC 26-2-7-6(b) states: "If a person liable under this chapter does not pay to the holder the full amount of the check not more than thirty (30) days after the certified mailing of written notice that the check has not been paid the person is liable for, and the court shall award judgment for, the following, whichever applies:

(1) If the face amount of the check is not greater than two hundred fifty dollars ($250), three (3) times the face amount of the check.

(2) If the face amount of the check is greater than two hundred fifty dollars ($250), the face amount of the check plus five hundred dollars ($500)."

If the county chooses to purse collection by the procedures listed in IC 26-2-7, any amounts collected over the face amount of the check would be receipted to the General Fund. Bank service charges may be paid to the treasurer along with the bad check at the time of reimbursement by the general fund or since money is already out of the bank account, the county auditor may post a disbursement in the general fund for the service fee. No check is written.

We have had several questions about retention and confidentiality of checks when a unit uses remote deposit. We conferred with the Indiana Commission on Public Records about the retention of these checks and their suggestion will be that retention of the checks remain 3 years, however; based on OCPR policy 06-01 (see http://www.in.gov/icpr/files/policyelectronic10years.pdf); the paper can be destroyed after the documents have been scanned and are in the digital repository, so long as the total retention is less than 10 years. We conferred with the Public Access Counselor in regard to confidentiality and he provided that the confidential financial provision, IC 5-14-3-4(a)(5), would allow an agency to redact the person’s account and routing number from the check. The social security number would be considered confidential pursuant to IC 5-14-3-4(a)(12).

The records of all public offices are public property and may be examined by any taxpayer. If denied the right by an official to examine the records, the court would grant the taxpayer the right, if proper proceedings were brought for that purpose. The right, however, must not be abused and the demand for the examination must be made at such times as will not interfere with the operation of the office. [IC 5-14-3-1]

Indiana Open Door Law – Board meetings are governed by the Open Door Law, IC 5-14-1.5. Under the Open Door Law all meetings of governing boards must be open to the public except for executive sessions.