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Terms Used In Alabama Code 40-5-31

  • circuit: means judicial circuit. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action and evidence of debt, deeds and conveyances. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • property: includes both real and personal property. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • tax collecting official: means the elected or appointed official charged with collecting ad valorem taxes and other prescribed fees on real and personal property in the county. See Alabama Code 40-5-1
  • Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
  • writing: includes typewriting and printing on paper. See Alabama Code 1-1-1

It shall be the duty of the tax collecting official, whenever upon information or otherwise he or she has good reason to believe that any person owing taxes, whether due or not, is about to leave or remove his or her property from the county, or that the person is closing out or going out of business or disposing of substantially all of his or her personal property and the collection of the taxes is endangered, to make out and certify to the judge of probate a bill against the person for the amount of the taxes and any fees due to the assessor or collecting official. Upon the approval of the bill by the judge of probate in writing endorsed thereon, the bill shall operate as a writ of fieri facias that the collecting official may execute by levy and sale in the same manner as sheriffs are authorized to execute writs when issued out of the circuit court. The writ may be executed in any county of the state where property of the taxpayer is found. The tax collecting official of the county shall execute the writ forwarded to him or her by the tax collecting official of the county where the assessment was made, the same as if issued in his or her own county. The tax collecting official shall remit collections on the writ to the other tax collecting official who sent the writ and is liable on his or her bond for any neglect of duty under this section. Advertisements in newspapers or otherwise of sales of any personal property as a closing out sale, fire sale, bankrupt sale, or any sale of like character shall be prima facie evidence that the collection of taxes due on property so advertised is endangered within the meaning of this section.