Notice to File Annual Personal Property Declarations

FILING OF PERSONAL PROPERTY DECLARATIONS
Sec. 12-40. Notice requiring declaration of personal property. The assessors in each town, except as otherwise specially provided by law, shall, on or before the fifteenth day of October annually, post on the signposts therein, if any, or at some other exterior place near the office of the town clerk, or publish in a newspaper published in such town or, if no newspaper is published in such town, then in any newspaper published in the state having a general circulation in such town, a notice requiring all persons therein liable to pay taxes to bring in a declaration of the taxable personal property be-longing to them on the first day of October in that year in accordance with section 12-42 and the taxable personal property for which a declaration is required in accordance with section 12-43.

Sec. 12-41. Filing of declaration. (a) Definitions. “Municipality”, whenever used in this section, includes each town, consolidated town and city, and consolidated town and borough.

(b) Motor vehicles. No person required by law to file an annual declaration of personal property shall include in such declaration motor vehicles that are registered in the office of the state Commissioner of Motor Vehicles. With respect to any vehicle subject to taxation in a town other than the town in which such vehicle is registered, pursuant to section 12-71, information concerning such vehicle may be included in a declaration filed pursuant to this section or section 12-43, or on a report filed pursuant to section 12-57a.

(c) Property included. Confidentiality of commercial and financial information. The annual declaration of the tangible personal property owned by such person on the assessment date, shall include, but is not limited to, the following property: Machinery used in mills and factories, cables, wires, poles, underground mains, conduits, pipes and other fixtures of water, gas, electric and heating companies, leasehold improvements classified as other than real property and furniture and fixtures of stores, offices, hotels, restaurants, taverns, halls, factories and manufacturers. Commercial or financial information in any declaration filed under this section shall not be open for public inspection but may be disclosed to municipal officers for tax collection purposes.

(e) Penalty. (1) Any person who fails to file a declaration of personal property on or before the first day of November, or on or before the extended filing date as granted by the assessor pursuant to section 12-42 shall be subject to a penalty equal to twenty-five per cent of the assessment of such property; (2) any person who files a declaration of personal property in a timely manner, but has omitted property, as defined in section 12-53, shall be subject to a penalty equal to twenty-five per cent of the assessment of such omitted property. The penalty shall be added to the grand list by the assessor of the town in which such property is taxable; and (3) any declaration received by the municipality to which it is due that is in an envelope bearing a postmark, as defined in section 1-2a, showing a date within the allowed filing period shall not be deemed to be delinquent. 

Sec. 12-42. Extension for filing declaration. Assessor preparation of declaration when none filed. ….  If no declaration is filed, the assessors shall fill out a declaration including all property which the assessors have reason to believe is owned by the person for whom such declaration is prepared, liable to taxation, at the percentage of its actual valuation, as determined by the assessors in accordance with the provisions of sections 12-63 and 12-71, from the best information they can obtain, and add thereto twenty-five per cent of such assessment. When the first day of November is a Saturday or Sunday, the declaration may be filed or postmarked on the next business day following.

~~Sec. 12-50. List may be filed by spouse, attorney or agent. The list of taxable property required to be filed annually by any taxpayer may be filed by the husband or wife or by an authorized agent or attorney of a taxpayer. Such husband or wife or agent or attorney shall make oath that he is authorized by the taxpayer to file such list and that he has knowledge of all taxable property of his principal subject to taxation in the town or other municipality wherein such list is filed.