ABSTRACT
Recently, a local news story featured a woman who had received a letter requesting payment of real estate tax on her house, together with late penalties. It carried a threat: If taxes were not paid, she might lose her property. Such a letter would be hardly unusual, of course, except for the fact that the tax year in question was back in the 1970s. The county had sold the right to pursue delinquent accounts to a private firm, which was merely pursuing collections. The woman had contacted the consumer reporter for a local television station because her claim to having paid the tax 25 years ago was being ignored. Indeed, she said that she had always paid the tax promptly. Unfortunately, she no longer had 25-year-old tax receipts to prove it. Even her bank no longer had records of check payments from that era. No statute of limitations protected her. Her only defense, it seemed, was the ability to produce the paper receipt she had long ago discarded.
