Bill Text: MS HB1486 | 2026 | Regular Session | Engrossed
Bill Title: Department of Revenue; revise provisions regarding tax liens and compromise of doubtful claims.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)
Status: (Failed) 2026-03-03 - Died In Committee [HB1486 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2026-HB1486-Engrossed.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2026 Regular Session
To: Ways and Means
By: Representative Lamar
House Bill 1486
(As Passed the House)
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 85-11-21, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THE TIME WITHIN WHICH THE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE MAY TAKE ACTION TO COLLECT AGAINST A TAX LIEN FOR A FINALLY DETERMINED TAX LIABILITY; TO AMEND SECTION 31-19-27, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT A DOUBTFUL CLAIM IS A CLAIM FOR WHICH A NOTICE OF TAX LIEN HAS BEEN ENROLLED IN THE UNIFORM STATE TAX LIEN REGISTRY FOR A FINALLY DETERMINED TAX LIABILITY AND FOR WHICH THE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE IS PROHIBITED UNDER SECTION 85-11-21 FROM TAKING ANY ACTION FOR COLLECTION AGAINST THE TAX LIEN FOR SUCH LIABILITY; TO AMEND SECTION 31-19-30, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE CERTAIN CRITERIA RELATING TO THE SETTLEMENT AND COMPROMISE OF CERTAIN DOUBTFUL CLAIMS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 85-11-21, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
85-11-21. All tax liens currently enrolled appearing on the judgment rolls of the counties of this state as of January 1, 2015, and which the department does not show as satisfied or as issued in error and which were last enrolled or reenrolled on the judgment rolls within seven (7) years before January 1, 2015, shall be immediately enrolled on the tax lien registry on January 1, 2015, and shall have the force and effect of a judgment on all real and personal property belonging to the debtor anywhere in the state for a duration of seven (7) years effective from the date of the enrollment on the tax lien registry unless and until such time as either the notice of tax lien is released or the department reenrolls the tax lien in the tax lien registry. However, for all tax liens initially enrolled on the tax lien registry on or after July 1, 2026, the department shall not take any action to collect against a tax lien for a finally determined tax liability more than three (3) years after the date that the tax lien for such liability was initially enrolled on the tax lien registry. For all tax liens initially enrolled and/or reenrolled on the tax lien registry before July 1, 2026, and appearing on the tax lien registry on such date, the department shall not take any action after July 1, 2029, to collect against a tax lien for such a finally determined tax liability.
SECTION 2. Section 31-19-27, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
31-19-27. (1) A doubtful claim of the state, or of the county, city, town, village, or levee board is one for which judgment has been rendered and for the collection of which the ordinary process of law has been ineffectual; debts due by drainage districts or other taxing districts or sinking funds to counties under the Rehabilitation Act of 1928, being Chapter 88, Laws of 1928, and Chapter 16 of the Acts of the Special Session of 1931; those debts due counties by drainage districts, which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation has heretofore refused to refinance; those debts due a municipal utility system as authorized under Section 31-19-30; debts due for sixteenth section township school fund loans made to churches, where the board of supervisors finds that the value of the security given therefor is insufficient or inadequate to pay or satisfy the principal and interest of said loan, and when the church repays the principal of said loan; and debts due by counties and townships to drainage districts for drainage district assessments or taxes levied and assessed upon sixteenth section lands.
(2) For the purposes of Section 31-19-30, a doubtful claim is (a) one for which a notice of tax lien has been enrolled in the Uniform State Tax Lien registry for a finally determined tax liability and for the collection of which the ordinary process of law has been ineffectual and/or (b) one for which a notice of tax lien has been enrolled in the Uniform State Tax Lien registry for a finally determined tax liability and for which the Department of Revenue is prohibited under Section 85-11-21 from taking any action for collection against the tax lien for such liability.
SECTION 3. Section 31-19-30, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
31-19-30. (1) The Commissioner of Revenue shall develop procedures for the receipt and consideration of offers to compromise and settle doubtful claims as defined in Section 31-19-27. If the commissioner makes a determination that a finally determined tax liability is a doubtful claim as defined in Section 31-19-27 and should be settled and compromised, that recommendation shall be made to the Governor as provided in Section 31-19-29.
(2) (a) Upon the advice of the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Revenue is authorized to enter into an agreement with a taxpayer under which a finally determined tax liability that is a doubtful claim is settled and compromised. The settlement agreement shall be binding and a taxpayer's liabilities for taxes, interest and penalties will be fully and finally compromised. If the Commissioner of Revenue later determines that the taxpayer misrepresented, whether intentionally or not, the financial condition of the taxpayer or any property belonging to the taxpayer or other person liable for the tax, all compromised liabilities may be reestablished without regard to any statute of limitations that otherwise may be applicable.
(b) From and after July 1, 2026, the following additional provisions apply to any doubtful claim as defined in Section 31-19-27(2)(b) that is settled and compromised under this section:
(i) For a doubtful claim for which a notice of tax lien has been initially enrolled on the Uniform State Tax Lien registry on or after July 1, 2026, and which has been so enrolled for at least three (3) years but not more than ten (10) years after the date that the tax lien for such liability was initially enrolled on the tax lien registry, the amount required by the commissioner to compromise such claim shall not exceed fifty percent (50%) of the taxpayer's liability for taxes, excluding interest and penalties. If the notice of tax lien for the claim has been so enrolled for at least ten (10) years after the date that the tax lien for such liability was initially enrolled on the tax lien registry, there shall be no amount required by the commissioner and the claim shall be settled and compromised.
(ii) For a doubtful claim for which a notice of tax lien was initially enrolled and/or reenrolled on the Uniform State Tax Lien registry before July 1, 2026, and appearing on the tax lien registry on such date, and which has been so enrolled for at least ten (10) years before July 1, 2026, the amount required by the commissioner to compromise such claim shall not exceed twenty-five percent (25%) of the taxpayer's liability for taxes, excluding interest and penalties.
Funds received by the Department of Revenue from the settlement and compromise of doubtful claims under this paragraph (b) shall be deposited into a special fund created in the State Treasury and used by the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of reviewing claims that have become doubtful claims as defined in Section 31-19-27(2)(b) and working with taxpayers to settle and compromise such claims.
(3) The Commissioner of Revenue and the Department of Revenue may discuss with and provide the Attorney General or his designated representative with information related to an offer to compromise and settle any doubtful claim under this section. Such discussions shall be subject to the confidentiality requirements of Sections 27-3-73, 27-7-83, 27-13-57 and/or 27-65-81, as the case may be.
(4) The Commissioner of Revenue shall have all powers necessary to implement and administer this section, and shall promulgate rules and regulations, in accordance with the Mississippi Administrative Procedures Law, necessary for the implementation of this section.
SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2026.
