(a) The department may collect taxes, with interest, penalties, and other additional amounts permitted by law, by distraint and sale, in the manner provided in this section, of the property of a person liable to pay the taxes, interest, penalties, or other additional amounts, who neglects or refuses to pay them within 10 days from the mailing of notice and demand for payment of them, and who has not appealed from the assessment of the taxes, interest, penalties, and other additional amounts determined under Alaska Stat. § 43.05.240 or following appeal taken under Alaska Stat. § 43.05.241 or 43.05.242.
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Terms Used In Alaska Statutes 43.20.270

  • action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • 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.
  • Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • person: includes a corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, organization, business trust, or society, as well as a natural person. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
  • property: includes real and personal property. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • state: means the State of Alaska unless applied to the different parts of the United States and in the latter case it includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of Alaska Stat. Chapter 09.38 or any other provision of law exempting property from execution, only the following property, if it belongs to the head of a family, is exempt from distraint and sale under this chapter:

(1) the schoolbooks and wearing apparel necessary for the family;
(2) arms for personal use;
(3) one cow, two hogs, five sheep and their wool, but the aggregate market value of the sheep may not exceed $50;
(4) the necessary food for the exempt cow, hogs, and sheep, for not more than 30 days;
(5) fuel to an amount not greater than $25;
(6) provisions to an amount not greater than $50;
(7) household furniture kept for use to an amount not greater than $300; and
(8) the books, tools, or implements of a trade or profession, to an amount not greater than $100.
(c) In case of neglect or refusal to pay taxes or deficiencies as provided in this chapter, the department may levy, or, by warrant issued by it, authorize a deputy or agent to levy upon, seize and sell all property, except exempt property belonging to the person, for the payment of the amount due, with interest and penalty for nonpayment, and also of a further amount sufficient for the fees, costs, and expenses of the levy.
(d) When distraint is made, as provided in this section

(1) the deputy or agent charged with the collection shall make or have made an account of the property distrained, a copy of which, signed by the deputy or agent making the distraint, shall be left with the owner or possessor of the property, or at the dwelling or usual place of business of the owner or possessor, with a person of suitable age and discretion, if a person of suitable age and discretion can be found, or if the taxpayer is a corporation, with an officer, manager, general agent, or agent for process, with a note of the amount demanded and the time and place of sale;
(2) the deputy or agent shall immediately publish a notice of the time and place of sale, together with a description of the property distrained, in a newspaper within the judicial district in which the distraint is made, and, in the discretion of the department, have the notice publicly posted in three public places within five miles of the place where the sale is to be held ; and
(3) the time of sale may not be less than 10 nor more than 60 days from the date of the notification to the owner or possessor of the property, and the place proposed for the sale may not be more than five miles from the place of making the distraint; the sale may be adjourned from time to time by the deputy or agent, if the deputy or agent considers it advisable, but not for more than 90 days in all.
(e) When property is advertised for sale under distraint, the deputy or agent making the seizure shall proceed to sell the property at public auction, offering the property at not less than a fair minimum price, including the expenses of making the seizure and of advertising the sale, and if the amount bid for the property at the sale is not equal to the fair minimum price so fixed, the agent or deputy conducting the sale may declare the property to be purchased by the agent or deputy for the state. The property so purchased may be sold by the deputy or agent under regulations prescribed by the department.
(f) The property distrained shall be restored to the owner or possessor if, before the sale, payment of the amount due is made to the deputy or agent charged with the collection, together with the fees and other charges; but in case of nonpayment, the deputy or agent shall proceed to sell the property at public auction. The owner of real property sold under this section, the owner’s heir, executor, or administrator, or a person in behalf of the owner may redeem the property sold or a particular tract of the property at any time within 120 days after the sale of the property or tract. The property or tract may be redeemed upon payment to the purchaser or, if the purchaser cannot be found in the state, then to the commissioner of revenue for the use of the purchaser, the purchaser’s heirs, or assigns, the amount paid by the purchaser and interest on it at the rate of 12 percent a year. If land sold is redeemed under this subsection, the commissioner shall cause entry of the fact to be made upon the record mentioned in (g)(6) of this section and the entry shall be evidence of such redemption.
(g) The following provisions apply to sale of property under this section.

(1) In the case of property sold under this section, the deputy or agent conducting the sale shall give to the purchaser a certificate of sale upon payment in full of the purchase price. In the case of real property, the certificate shall set out the real property purchased, for whose taxes the same was sold, the name of the purchaser, and the price paid for it.
(2) In the case of real property sold under this section and not redeemed in the manner and within the time provided in (f) of this section, the commissioner shall execute to the purchaser of the real property at the sale a deed of the real property so purchased, reciting the facts set out in the certificate.
(3) If real property is declared purchased by the deputy or agent for the state at a sale under (e) of this section, the deputy or agent shall at the proper time execute a deed for it after its preparation and the endorsement of approval as to its form by the attorney general and, without delay, cause the deed to be duly recorded in the proper registry of deeds.
(4) In all cases of sale of property under this section other than real property, the certificate of sale

(A) is prima facie evidence of the right of the deputy or agent to make the sale, and conclusive evidence of the regularity of the proceedings in making the sale;
(B) transfers to the purchaser all right, title, and interest of the delinquent in and to the property sold;
(C) where the property consists of stock, is notice, when received, to a corporation, company, or association of the transfer, and is authority to the corporation, company, or association to record the transfer on their books and records in the same manner as if the stock was transferred or assigned by the party holding the stock in lieu of an original or prior certificate, which is void, whether cancelled or not; and
(D) where the subject of sale is security or other evidence of debt, is a good and valid receipt to the person holding it, as against a person holding or claiming to hold possession of the security or other evidence of debt.
(5) In the case of the sale of real property under this section

(A) the deed of sale given under (2) of this subsection is prima facie evidence of the facts stated in it; and
(B) if the proceedings of the commissioner or a deputy or agent of the commissioner as set out have been substantially in accordance with the provisions of law, the deed is considered and operates as a conveyance of all the right, title, and interest the party delinquent had in and to the real property thus sold at the time the lien of the state attached to it.
(6) The commissioner or a deputy or agent of the commissioner shall keep a record of all sales of real property under this section and of redemption of the property. The record shall set out the tax for which the sale was made, the date of seizure and sale, the name of the party assessed and all proceedings in making the sale, the amount of expenses, the names of the purchasers, and the date of the deed. A copy of the record or a part of it certified by the commissioner is evidence in any court of the truth of the facts stated in it.
(h) When property liable to distraint for taxes is not divisible, so as to enable the department by sale of a part of it to raise the whole amount of the tax or deficiency, with all costs and charges, the whole of the property shall be sold, and the surplus of the proceeds of the sale, after making allowance for the amount of the tax or deficiency, interest, penalties, and additions to it and for the costs and charges of the distraint and sale, shall be surrendered to the owner of the property.
(i) If property seized and sold under this section is not sufficient to satisfy the claim of the state for which distraint or seizure is made, the deputy or agent may, thereafter, and as often as is necessary, proceed to seize and sell in like manner any other property liable to seizure of the taxpayer against whom the claim exists until the amount due from the taxpayer, together with all expenses, is fully paid.
(j) A person in possession of property, or rights to property, which is subject to distraint, upon which a levy is made, shall, upon demand by the deputy or agent making the levy, surrender the property or rights to the deputy or agent, unless the property or right is, at the time of the demand, subject to an attachment under judicial process. A person who fails or refuses to so surrender the property or rights is personally liable to the state in a sum equal to the value of the property or rights not so surrendered, but not exceeding the amount of the taxes or deficiencies, including penalties, and interest, for the collection of which levy is made, together with costs and interest from the date of the levy.
(k) All persons shall, on demand of an agent or deputy about to distrain or having distrained on property, or rights of property, exhibit all books containing evidence or statements relating to the subject of distraint, or the property or rights of property liable to distraint for the tax due.
(l) The department shall by regulation determine the fees and charges to be allowed in cases of distraint, and may determine whether an expense incurred in making a distraint or seizure is necessary.
(m) The period of limitation upon distraint is the same as provided under 26 U.S.C. § 6501(c), 6502(a), and 6503(a) (Internal Revenue Code). In determining the running of a period of limitation in respect of distraint, the distraint is considered to begin when the levy upon property is made.
(n) The provisions of this chapter are not exclusive but are in addition to all other existing remedies provided by law for the enforcement of the revenue laws of the state.
(o) The department may be made a party defendant in an action by a person aggrieved by the unlawful seizure or sale of the person’s property, but only the state is responsible for a final money judgment secured against the department, and the judgment shall be satisfied out of the general fund of the state treasury.
(p) The department shall adopt and publish all necessary regulations for the enforcement of this section.
(q) In this section “person” includes an officer or employee of a corporation or a member or employee of a partnership, who as an officer, employee, or member is under a duty to perform the act in respect of which the violation occurs.
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