§ 9280. Taxes as personal debt to State; action to collect taxes; limitations

(a) Any operator who fails to collect the required tax or to pay it to the Commissioner as required under this chapter shall be personally and individually liable for the amount of such tax together with such interest and penalty as has accrued under the provisions of section 3202 of this title; and if the operator is a corporation or other entity, the personal liability shall extend and be applicable to any officer or agent of the corporation or entity who as an officer or agent of the same is under a duty to collect the tax and transmit the tax to the Commissioner as required in this chapter.

(b) Any sum or sums collected in accordance with this chapter shall be deemed to be held by the person in trust for the State of Vermont. Such sums shall be recorded by such person in a ledger account so as clearly to indicate the amount of tax collected and that the same are the property of the State of Vermont.

(c) Action may be brought by the Attorney General at the instance of the Commissioner in the name of the State to recover the amount of taxes, penalties, and interest due from any person responsible for the same under this chapter, provided such action is brought within six years after the same are due or six years after the date the liability becomes final, whichever is later. Such action shall be returnable to the county where the person resides or has a place of business; and if the person is a nonresident with no place of business in the State, the action shall be returnable to Washington County. The limitation of six years in this section shall not apply to a suit to collect taxes, penalties, interest, and costs when the person filed a fraudulent return or failed to file a return when the same was due.

(d) As an additional or alternate remedy, the Commissioner may issue a warrant, directed to the sheriff of any county commanding him or her to levy upon and sell the real and personal property of any person liable for the tax, which may be found within his or her county, for the payment of the amount thereof, with any penalties and interest, and the cost of executing the warrant, and to return the warrant to the Commissioner and to pay to him or her the money collected by virtue thereof within 60 days after the receipt of the warrant. The sheriff shall within five business days after the receipt of the warrant file with the county clerk a copy thereof, and thereupon the clerk shall enter in the judgment docket the name of the person mentioned in the warrant and the amount of the tax, penalties, and interest for which the warrant is issued and the date when the copy is filed. Thereupon, the amount of the warrant so docketed shall become a lien upon the title to and interest in real and personal property of the person against whom the warrant is issued. The sheriff shall then proceed upon the warrant, in the same manner, and with like effect, as that provided by law in respect to executions issued against property upon judgments of a court of record and for services in executing the warrant he or she shall be entitled to the same fees, which he or she may collect in the same manner. If a warrant is returned not satisfied in full, the Commissioner may from time to time issue new warrants and shall also have the same remedies to enforce the amount due thereunder as if the State had recovered judgment therefor and execution thereon had been returned unsatisfied. (Added 1959, No. 217, § 21; amended 1963, No. 227, § 6; 1975, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 14, eff. after June 30, 1976; 1991, No. 186 (Adj. Sess.), § 24, eff. May 7, 1992; 1997, No. 50, § 28, eff. June 26, 1997; 1999, No. 49, § 61, eff. June 2, 1999; 2003, No. 70 (Adj. Sess.), § 54, eff. March 1, 2004; 2017, No. 11, § 62.)