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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 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 3-1/2 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 is declared by an insurance company to be a total loss due to flood damage, permanently destroyed, or sold to the federal government, the state, or political subdivision thereof, and any owner who sells a rental motor vehicle and transfers the license plates issued to that motor vehicle under section 168.15, subdivision 3, 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. Refunds under this section to licensed motor vehicle lessors must be made annually in a manner the registrar determines.

HIST: (2682) 1921 c 461 s 11; 1923 c 418 s 11; 1931 c 174 s 1; 1935 c 142 s 1; 1945 c 600 s 1; 1953 c 42 s 1; 1957 c 895 s 1; 1959 c 157 s 6; 1963 c 147 s 1; 1965 c 148 s 1; 1973 c 6 s 3; 1973 c 492 s 14; 1981 c 363 s 23; 1986 c 444; 1995 c 28 s 1; 1996 c 455 art 4 s 10; 1997 c 250 s 2

* NOTE: This section was amended by Laws 1996, chapter 455, *article 4, section 10 which is repealed effective June 30, *1999. Laws 1996, chapter 455, article 4, section 15.

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes