Chap. 135.——An ACT to amend and re-enact section 414 of the Tax Code of Vir-
ginia, relating to the correction of erroneous assessments. [S B 102]

Approved March 11, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
four hundred and fourteen of the Tax Code of Virginia be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 414. Jurisdiction of Courts to Correct Erroneous Assess-
ments of Local Levies Generally—Any person assessed with county
or city levies or other local taxes, on real estate, aggrieved by any such
assessment, may, unless otherwise specially provided by law, within two
years from the thirty-first day of December of the year in which any
such assessment is made, and any person assessed with local levies on
personal property or a local license tax, aggrieved thereby, may within
one year from the thirty-first day of December of the year in which
such assessment is made, apply for relief to the circuit court of the
county, or any city court of record of the city, wherein such assess-
ment was made. In such proceeding the burden of proof shall be upon
the taxpayer to show that the property in question is assessed at more
than its fair market value, or, that said assessment is not uniform in
its application, but it shall not be necessary for the taxpayer to show
that intentional, systematic and wilful discrimination has been made.

The application aforesaid may in all cases be filed in the clerk’s of-
fice of any such court in vacation, and the time which shall elapse from
the filing of such application in the clerk’s office, as aforesaid, to the
hearing on the same by the court, shall be excluded from the computa-
tion of the said period of one year or two years, as the case may be.

But where it is shown to the satisfaction of the court that there has
been a double assessment in any case, one of which assessments is
proper and the other erroneous, and that a proper single tax has been
paid thereon, the court may order that such erroneous assessment be
corrected, whether the erroneous tax has been paid or not, and even
though the application be not made within the time hereinbefore re-
quired.

The Commonwealth’s attorney for such county, or the Common-
wealth’s attorney or city attorney for the city, as the case may be, shall
defend the application; and no order made in favor of the applicant
shall have any validity unless it is stated therein that such attorney did
so defend, or that after notice of such application failed or refused to
defend, in which event the court shall appoint a practicing attorney of
the county or city to defend such motion; that the commissioner of the
revenue making the assessment or his successor, if it was made by a
commissioner, was examined as a witness touching the application, and
the fact proved be certified.

If the court be satisfied from the evidence that the assessment is
erroneous and that the erroneous assessment was not caused by the
wilful failure or refusal of the applicant to furnish a list of his property
to the tax assessing authority, as the law requires; or that the applicant
is erroneously charged with a local license tax and that the erroneous
assessment was not caused by the wilful failure or refusal of the ap-
plicant to furnish the tax assessing authority with the necessary infor-
mation, as required by law, in either case, the court may order that
the assessment be corrected. If, in the opinion of the court, the assess-
ment exceeds the proper amount, the court may reduce the assessment
to what in its opinion based on the evidence is a fair market value of
the property involved, and shall order that the applicant be exonerated
from the payment of so much as is erroneously charged, if not already
paid, and if paid, that it be refunded to him. If, in the opinion of the
court, the assessment be less than the proper amount, the court shall
order the assessment increased to what in its opinion is a fair market
value of the property involved, and shall order that the applicant pay
the proper taxes.

For the purpose of reducing or increasing the assessment and ad-
justing the taxes in either case, the court shall be clothed with all the
powers and duties of the authority who, or which, made the assessment
complained of, as of the time when such assessment was made, and
all powers and duties conferred by law upon such authority between
the time such assessment was made and the time such application is
heard.

In order of exoneration under this section, when delivered to the
tax-collecting officer, shall restrain him from collecting so much as is
thus erroneously charged. If what was so erroneously charged has
been paid, the order of the court shall compel the treasurer, or city
collector, as the case may be, to refund to the applicant the amount
specified in the order.

This section, in so far as it applies to real estate, shall be construed
to include assessments made at a general re-assessment, and the remedy
herein provided shall be available to any person assessed at such gen-
eral reassessment although no taxes may have been extended on the
basis of such assessment at the time the application is filed. Whenever
a correction of a real estate assessment is ordered by a court, whether
such assessment was made at a general reassessment or not, the clerk
of the court shall certify to the proper commissioner of the revenue the
changes made by the court so that he may note such changes on the
land assessment books.