La. R.S. 47:1993 — Preparation and filing of rolls by assessor

A.(1) After the assessment lists have been approved by the parish governing
authorities as boards of reviewers, the assessors shall prepare the tax rolls in duplicate, after
which one copy shall be delivered to the tax collector and one copy submitted to the
Louisiana Tax Commission for approval. The assessor shall also submit one copy of the
grand recapitulation sheet to the legislative auditor.
(2) If an assessor uses electronic data processing equipment to prepare the assessment
rolls, the assessment data produced shall be made available upon request in a useable
electronic media. The assessors shall prepare any such electronic assessment roll made
available to tax collectors in American Standard Code for Information Interchange
(A.S.C.I.I.) or some other mutually agreed-upon format and may charge the tax collector a
fee for preparing such information. This fee shall not exceed the actual cost of reproducing
a copy of the assessment data in a useable electronic media and may be based upon the
amount of data reproduced, any costs associated with converting to A.S.C.I.I. or other
format, the amount of time required to reproduce the data, and any office supplies utilized
in compiling and reproducing the data.
(3) The assessors shall prepare the rolls by parish, school board, police jury, levee
district, special district, and by any other recipients of ad valorem taxes, except by
municipality. If any municipality requests a tax roll, the assessor shall be required to prepare
that tax roll; however, the assessor's salary and expense fund shall be reimbursed by the
municipality in accordance with R.S. 47:1993.1(C).
(4) If any municipality prepares its own tax rolls and assessment lists, upon approval
of these assessment lists by the parish governing authorities as boards of reviewers, each
municipality shall prepare and submit a municipal tax roll to the Louisiana Tax Commission
and submit to the legislative auditor an annual statement of its millage rates and assessed
valuation of property within its respective jurisdiction.
B. The assessors of the parishes of this state shall not deliver and deposit with the tax
collector of their respective parishes the tax rolls of any current year until the collector
presents a receipt or quietus from the auditor and the parish governing authority that all state
and parish taxes assessed on the roll of the preceding year have been paid or accounted for.
If the tax collector is unable to present this receipt or quietus, the assessor shall immediately
notify the auditor, the governing authority, and the tax commission of his completion of the
tax rolls of his parish and of his inability to deliver the tax rolls by reason of the tax collector
not having obtained the required quietus. Any assessor who shall violate the provisions of
this Subsection shall forfeit any and all commissions to which the assessor may be entitled
from parish or state for his labors in making and writing the tax rolls.
C. The assessors shall secure the approval of the tax commission before filing their
tax rolls with the tax collector, and the tax commission may instruct all tax collectors not to
receive from the assessor any tax roll or collect any statutory impositions thereon without the
written consent of the tax commission. The tax commission may require the assessors to take
an oath in a form to be prescribed by the tax commission declaring that the assessor has
complied with its instructions.
D. Each tax assessor shall complete and deliver the tax roll of his parish on or before
the fifteenth day of November in each calendar year.
E. The act of delivering the tax rolls by the assessor or municipality to the recorder
of mortgages shall be deemed prima facie evidence that the assessment has been made and
completed in the manner provided by law. No injunction shall be issued by any court to
prevent any assessor from delivering the tax rolls.
F. In the suit of any taxpayer testing the correctness of his or their assessments before
any court of competent jurisdiction, the decision of such shall only affect the assessment of
the person or persons in such suit and shall in no manner affect or invalidate the assessment
of any other person or property appearing upon the tax rolls.
G. From the day that the tax roll is delivered to the recorder of mortgages, it shall act
as a lien and privilege upon each property thereon assessed, which lien or privilege shall
prime and outrank all other mortgages, privileges, liens, security interests, encumbrances, or
preferences, except tax rolls of previous years and tax lien certificates, which shall rank in
pari passu with the tax roll and each other.
H. The recorder of mortgages shall keep the tax roll delivered to him among the
record books of his office, and it shall be a part of the record of such office. The failure of
the recorder of mortgages to mark the tax rolls "filed" or to index them shall in no way
prejudice the rights of any political subdivision.
Acts 1981, No. 431, §1; Acts 1982, No. 522, §1, eff. July 22, 1982; Acts 1988, No.
260, §1; Acts 1990, No. 830, §1; Acts 1991, No. 124, §1; Acts 2001, No. 1102, §10; Acts
2005, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 66, §1, eff. Dec. 6, 2005; Acts 2006, No. 622, §8, eff. Dec. 11, 2006;