1.1                          A bill for an act 
  1.2             relating to motor vehicles; providing time limit for 
  1.3             refunding motor vehicle registration tax overpayment; 
  1.4             amending Minnesota Statutes 1994, section 168.16. 
  1.5   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.6      Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1994, section 168.16, is 
  1.7   amended to read: 
  1.8      168.16 [REFUNDS; APPROPRIATION.] 
  1.9      After the tax upon any motor vehicle shall have been paid 
  1.10  for any year, refund shall be made for errors made in computing 
  1.11  the tax or fees and for the error on the part of an owner who 
  1.12  may in error have registered a motor vehicle that was not 
  1.13  before, nor at the time of registration, nor at any time 
  1.14  thereafter during the current past year, subject to tax in this 
  1.15  state, provided that after more than two years after the tax was 
  1.16  paid no refund shall be made for any tax paid on any vehicle 
  1.17  exempted from taxation by reasons of nonuse as provided by 
  1.18  section 168.012.  Unless otherwise provided in this chapter, a 
  1.19  claim for a refund of an overpayment of registration tax must be 
  1.20  filed within three and one-half years from the date of payment.  
  1.21  The refundment shall be made from any fund in possession of the 
  1.22  registrar and shall be deducted from the registrar's monthly 
  1.23  report to the commissioner of finance.  A detailed report of the 
  1.24  refundment shall accompany the report.  The former owner of a 
  1.25  transferred vehicle by an assignment in writing endorsed upon 
  2.1   the registration certificate and delivered to the registrar 
  2.2   within the time provided herein may sell and assign to the new 
  2.3   owner thereof the right to have the tax paid by the former owner 
  2.4   accredited to the owner who duly registers the vehicle.  Any 
  2.5   owner at the time of such occurrence, whose vehicle shall be 
  2.6   permanently destroyed, or sold to the federal government, the 
  2.7   state, or political subdivision thereof, shall upon filing a 
  2.8   verified claim be entitled to a refund of the unused portion of 
  2.9   the tax paid upon the vehicle, computed as follows: 
  2.10     (1) If the vehicle is registered under the calendar year 
  2.11  system of registration, the refund is computed pro rata by the 
  2.12  month, 1/12 of the annual tax paid for each month of the year 
  2.13  remaining after the month in which the plates and certificate 
  2.14  were returned to the registrar; 
  2.15     (2) In the case of a vehicle registered under the monthly 
  2.16  series system of registration, the amount of the refund is equal 
  2.17  to the sum of the amounts of the license fee attributable to 
  2.18  those months remaining in the licensing period after the month 
  2.19  in which the plates and certificate were returned to the 
  2.20  registrar. 
  2.21     There is hereby appropriated to the persons entitled to a 
  2.22  refund, from the fund or account in the state treasury to which 
  2.23  the money was credited, an amount sufficient to make the refund 
  2.24  and payment. 
  2.25     Sec. 2.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
  2.26     Section 1 is effective August 1, 1995, for claims for 
  2.27  refund made on and after that date.