Section 31 Procedures

• Library: Tax Law 2009

Section 139.031, RSMo, as amended by Senate Bill 711, 94^th General Assembly, 2^nd Regular Session (Mo. 2008), provides for the payment of taxes under protest. The protest must be in writing, be filed contemporaneously with the payment of taxes, and set forth all facts, law, and statutes on which the protest is based. Section 139.031.1. The procedure does not apply to taxes paid to the Missouri Director of Revenue. Id.

In Armco Steel v. City of Kansas City, 883 S.W.2d 3 (Mo. banc 1994), the Court held that, under the statute governing the payment of taxes under protest, the term “collectors” is not limited to county collectors but encompasses all kinds of tax collectors, including city and municipal collectors. Thus, assessments of taxes collected by city and municipal collectors are subject to the protest provisions of § 139.031.

Proper payment under protest results in the segregation of the paid funds; the collector is obliged to make the segregation. Section 139.031.3. Within 90 days of filing the protest, the taxpayer must file the petition against the collector in the same county in which the collector’s office is maintained. Id. If the taxpayer fails to timely file the action, the collector is mandated to disburse the impounded payment. Id.

The proceeding in circuit court is to the court alone, with no provision for trial by jury. The court is authorized to fashion such relief as may be fair in the circumstances, and the relief may be as to all or part of the taxes paid under protest. Section 139.031.5.

Procedural statutes are strictly...