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shall be considered, and they may alter the estimated value thereof; but when the party makes affidavit of the value, it shall be assessed at the value sworn to. [Sess. Laws 1843, 64, Sec. 14.]

"The assessment roll shall contain the names of the resident persons liable to be taxed; a full and perfect description of the real estate of such persons; the number of acres in each tract or parcel; the value of each tract or parcel; the aggregate valuation of the personal estate of such person; for which purposes the Auditor General, before the third Monday of April in each year, shall prepare and transmit suitable blanks to the several County Treasurers, who shall immediately supply all the Assessors with the same, which shall be in such form as the Auditor General shall direct." [Id., Sec. 15.]

"The Assessors shall assess all lands in their townships as non-resident lands, which are unoccupied and unclaimed by any resident of their township, and shall enter the same on a part of the roll separate from that containing the estate of residents." [Id., Sec. 17.]

The assessment having been completed, is returned, duly certified, to the Board of Supervisors of the county, which meets on the second Monday in October. [Sess. Laws 1844.]

It is the duty of this Board, in connection with the County Treasurer, to review and equalize the assessments; to correct descriptions of lands; to obtain from Town Clerks the amount of moneys to be raised for town purposes, highways, bridges, and schools; to ascertain the amount necessary to be raised for county purposes, and as a State tax, and thereupon to order a tax to be levied for the amount. Each Supervisor, after having obtained a certificate from the Clerk of the Board, of the tax to be levied in his town, is required to notify the Township Treasurer of the amount, and after such Treasurer shall have given security for its collection, to deliver him the roll, with a warrant annexed, authorizing such

Treasurer to collect such taxes on or before the first day of the ensuing February.

The Treasurer of each township, upon receiving the tax list and warrant, is required to proceed to collect the taxes therein mentioned, and for that purpose to call at least once on the person taxed, if a resident, or at the place of his usual residence in the township, and demand payment of the taxes charged to him; and no property, liable to be taxed, shall be exempt from levy and sale in the collection thereof. In case any person shall refuse or neglect to pay the tax imposed on him, the same is required to be levied. by distress, on his goods and chattels, wheresoever found in the township; but if the same be not collected, and the Treasurer shall not be able to collect them, he can only return the fact to the County Treasurer, on the first day of February, who is authorized to credit him the amount of the tax. By an act passed in 1843, and another amending it in 1844, it is provided that, whenever any County Treasurer shall receive, from a Township Treasurer, a certified statement of unpaid taxes on the lands of residents, or nonresidents, such County Treasurer shall enter the same in full on the books provided for that purpose, in his office; and after making a transcript thereof, which shall be compared with the Township Treasurer's statement, by the County Clerk, who shall certify such examination and comparison the same, shall be forwarded to the Auditor.

Before the expiration of the month of March ensuing, such transcript is required to be forwarded to the Auditor General, at Detroit. The Act of 1843 provides, "that any person may pay the taxes on lands returned as aforesaid, by paying the amount of the tax, and the five per cent specified in the preceding section, with interest, calculated thereon from the first day of February, at the rate of fifteen per cent per annum, and the office charges hereinafter specified, to the several County Treasurers, in which the lands are situated, at any time before they are sold for taxes or to the State

Treasurer, on the certificate of the Auditor General, until the first day of September following the return." [Id., Sec. 50.]

The office charges referred to in the foregoing section, are twenty-five cents on the first description, and six cents on every one above that number. [Id., Sec. 51.]

In cases of delinquency it is further provided, that "all lands returned to the Auditor General delinquent as aforesaid, upon which the taxes, interest, and charges, shall not be paid, as herein before provided, by the first day of September succeeding their return, or be charged back to the proper county, shall be subject to sale and redemption, as hereinafter provided." [Id., Sec. 56.]

XIV. LAND TAX FORFEITURES AND REDEMPTIONS IN MICHIGAN.

By land tax forfeitures is meant, of course, the consequences of neglect in the payment of taxes. The preceding topic has carried the reader hastily through the mode adopted by the people of Michigan to levy and collect their revenue, and it remains only to give a summary of those provisions which draw from the owner the land itself, or a portion of it, as the penalty for his neglect.

Formerly lands were required to be sold by the County Treasurers respectively, on the first Monday of October next after they were returned as delinquent to the Auditor General, and two years after sale were allowed for redeeming them; but by an act passed in 1845, it was provided that lands returned, "on which the taxes, interest and charges shall remain unpaid for one year succeeding their return, shall be advertised and sold in such manner as is now or may hereafter be provided by law: provided, that no lands bid in by the State for taxes of any previous year, and remaining unredeemed, shall be advertised and sold as other lands, but shall be subject to sale as hereinafter provided."

The sale is required by statute to be under the direction of the Auditor General, after a published notice thereof, and so

much only of each parcel taxed to be sold from the northeast corner thereof, in a square form, as shall be sufficient to pay the taxes, interest and charges.

Discretionary power is vested in the County Treasurer to demand immediate payment of the bids, or to give a reasonable day of payment, and in all cases where payment is not made in twenty-four hours, he may declare the bid canceled, and at his discretion sell the lands again; "and any person so neglecting or refusing to pay any bid, shall not be entitled after such neglect to have his bid received by the Treasurer." [Sess. Laws, 1843.]

It is further provided that "the several County Treasurers shall receive only such funds as shall at the time be receivable by law at the State Treasury, on account of the general and delinquent tax funds, and so much as may be necessary to pay for printing, and sale charges, shall be paid in specie or its equivalent." [Id., Sec. 63.]

"At the sales aforesaid, the respective County Treasurers shall give the purchasers, on the payment of their bids, a certificate in writing describing the lands purchased, and the amount paid therefor, and shall endorse thereon, the kind of funds received; and such certificates shall be regularly numbered, and a copy thereof forwarded to the Auditor General in such manner as he shall direct." [Id., Sec. 64.]

"On the presentation of such certificate of sale to the Auditor General, after the expiration of the time hereinafter provided for the redemption of lands sold, as aforesaid, he shall execute to the purchaser, his heirs or assigns, a deed of the land therein described, unless the Auditor General shall have discovered that the same was improperly sold; which deed shall be prima facie evidence of the regularity of all the proceedings to the date of the deed; but such lands shall be subject to all unpaid taxes properly chargeable thereon." [Id., Sec. 15.]

If any individual shall become the purchaser on such

sale, any person claiming the lands sold, or any interest therein, may redeem the same within one year after the sale, and not afterwards, by paying into the State Treasury the amount for which such parcel was sold, with interest thereon at the rate of twenty-five per cent per annum-twenty of which shall be paid by the State to the purchaser, and five per cent retained to meet incidental expenses: provided, that if redeemed within three months after sale, three months interest shall be charged; if after three and within six months, then six months interest; if after six and within nine months, then nine months interest; and if after nine months and within one year, then one year's interest shall be charged at the rate prescribed. [Sess. Laws, 1845, Sec. 2.]

But when land, at tax sales, is not purchased by individuals, it is brought in by the State. Until such lands shall be sold by the State as hereinafter mentioned, the same may be redeemed at the amount of the bid and twenty-five per cent interest to the day of redemption; but in such case, the person applying to redeem is also required to pay or cause to be paid at the time of such application, all taxes, interest and charges that shall remain unpaid on said lands, in the Auditor General's office at the time of such application, and not otherwise.

It is further provided that the title acquired by such redemption shall have the effect only of releasing the lien or title of the State arising from the forfeiture, and nothing more. [Id., Sec. 4.]

After the expiration of one year from the day of sale and purchase by the State, as aforesaid, such lands as shall not have been redeemed, may be again advertised to be sold on the first Monday of the ensuing October, by the respective County Treasurers; and on that day the same may be again offered for sale, and upon receiving payment of the bid, which shall be not less than the minimum fixed in the no

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