§2060. Statements of collections and settlement

A.(1) Tax collectors throughout the state, including the tax collector in the city of New Orleans, are required to transmit monthly to the auditor a sworn statement of their collections of the public revenues of the state for the preceding month, accompanied by a check for the net amount of such collections. This statement shall be transmitted in the first ten days of every month, and any tax collector failing so to do, shall be liable to be proceeded against as a defaulting official. Similar settlements for all parish taxes shall be made by the tax collectors during the first ten business days of each month with the parish treasurer. All tax collectors shall make their final settlement with the auditor and parish governing authority within ten days after the twentieth day of July of each year; and every collector failing to comply shall be proceeded against as provided hereinafter in this Section. In default of the tax collector settling with the parish, such collector shall be removed from office in the manner provided in Section 25 of Article X of the Constitution of Louisiana.

(2) The auditor is authorized to extend the time for the final payment by state tax collectors, parish of Orleans excepted, for a period not exceeding thirty days from the time provided in the preceding paragraph when in his judgment the public interest may require it.

(3) The several collectors of taxes in making their return to the auditor and police juries of monies collected for the state and parish taxes to be paid into the treasury, shall state separately in such returns the amount of general fund, interest, levee, and school taxes so collected, and such other taxes as may be levied by the state or parish. The auditor shall furnish suitable blanks for making this return.

B.(1) If any tax collector fails or neglects to make the settlement provided herein, he shall forfeit the commission allowed him, and interest at the rate of five per centum (5%) per month of the sum withheld, to be computed from the time the sum should have been paid until actual payment; and the auditor and parish governing authority shall charge the delinquent accordingly; and shall immediately after the delinquency shall occur require the district attorney of the district or parish wherein such tax collector may perform his functions to proceed against the collector and his sureties by rule, before any court of competent jurisdiction, after three-days notice, for the recovery of the amount due by the tax collector. The auditor shall, in case any tax collector withholds his settlement more than twenty days after the time fixed, send a certified statement of his account to the judge of the district who shall be required to give it in special charge to the grand jury; the statement shall be held sufficient evidence for the finding of a true bill, and as provided by law, shall be read in evidence against the accused on the trial of the case. The suit shall have precedence on the docket of the court over all other cases, whenever it may be instituted, and any tax collector who, having made his monthly or quarterly settlement, as provided for in this Section, fails to pay immediately the amount so ascertained to be due into the state or parish treasury, and obtain the treasurer's receipts therefor, shall, in addition to the forfeiture of commission and interest, be subject to the penalties provided for theft and to removal from office. Should any tax collector fail to render a final settlement and settle in full within the time prescribed in this Section, he shall be condemned to pay the costs of all proceedings against him, as a penalty for his neglect, though he may not be indebted to the state; and the auditor is empowered to require a settlement of the accounts of any official whenever, in his judgment, the public interests would be subserved thereby, or whenever any of the sureties of such official request the auditor to order a settlement of the accounts of such officers.

(2) District attorneys collecting money by virtue of such a proceeding shall receive five per centum (5%) on the amount thereof, where not otherwise provided, as a compensation for collecting and paying the same into the state or parish treasury; and any district attorney failing to return money as soon as collected into the state or parish treasury, shall be subject to criminal prosecution, and in addition to the penalties already provided by law for the punishment of fraud and breach of trust, shall, upon conviction, have his name stricken from the roll of attorneys and be prohibited ever afterwards from practicing law in this state.

C. The treasurer of the state shall keep and have in his office a separate book, in which he shall and must enter, in the order in which they are made, and at the time the settlements are made, the name of the settling tax collector, the date of the settlement, the aggregate amount of taxes received thereat in cash for each fund, the aggregate amount of cash received thereat in bonds or warrants, or other evidences of indebtedness for each fund. To each collector he shall, in settlement, deliver a receipt, in which the same details shall be set forth in like form. The book so kept shall be subject to the inspection of the public.

H.C.R. No. 88, 1993 R.S., eff. May 30, 1993; H.C.R. No. 1, 1994 R.S., eff. May 11, 1994; Acts 2011, No. 61, §1.