Minnesota Session Laws - 1995, Regular Session

                             CHAPTER 28-S.F.No. 145 
                  An act relating to motor vehicles; providing time 
                  limit for refunding motor vehicle registration tax 
                  overpayment; amending Minnesota Statutes 1994, section 
                  168.16. 
        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
           Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1994, section 168.16, is 
        amended to read: 
           168.16 [REFUNDS; APPROPRIATION.] 
           After the tax upon any motor vehicle shall have been paid 
        for any year, refund shall be made for errors made in computing 
        the tax or fees and for the error on the part of an owner who 
        may in error have registered a motor vehicle that was not 
        before, nor at the time of registration, nor at any time 
        thereafter during the current past year, subject to tax in this 
        state, provided that after more than two years after the tax was 
        paid no refund shall be made for any tax paid on any vehicle 
        exempted from taxation by reasons of nonuse as provided by 
        section 168.012.  Unless otherwise provided in this chapter, a 
        claim for a refund of an overpayment of registration tax must be 
        filed within three and one-half years from the date of payment.  
        The refundment shall be made from any fund in possession of the 
        registrar and shall be deducted from the registrar's monthly 
        report to the commissioner of finance.  A detailed report of the 
        refundment shall accompany the report.  The former owner of a 
        transferred vehicle by an assignment in writing endorsed upon 
        the registration certificate and delivered to the registrar 
        within the time provided herein may sell and assign to the new 
        owner thereof the right to have the tax paid by the former owner 
        accredited to the owner who duly registers the vehicle.  Any 
        owner at the time of such occurrence, whose vehicle shall be 
        permanently destroyed, or sold to the federal government, the 
        state, or political subdivision thereof, shall upon filing a 
        verified claim be entitled to a refund of the unused portion of 
        the tax paid upon the vehicle, computed as follows: 
           (1) If the vehicle is registered under the calendar year 
        system of registration, the refund is computed pro rata by the 
        month, 1/12 of the annual tax paid for each month of the year 
        remaining after the month in which the plates and certificate 
        were returned to the registrar; 
           (2) In the case of a vehicle registered under the monthly 
        series system of registration, the amount of the refund is equal 
        to the sum of the amounts of the license fee attributable to 
        those months remaining in the licensing period after the month 
        in which the plates and certificate were returned to the 
        registrar. 
           There is hereby appropriated to the persons entitled to a 
        refund, from the fund or account in the state treasury to which 
        the money was credited, an amount sufficient to make the refund 
        and payment. 
           Sec. 2.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
           Section 1 is effective August 1, 1995, for claims for 
        refund made on and after that date. 
           Presented to the governor March 27, 1995 
           Signed by the governor March 29, 1995, 1:05 p.m.