Security Interest Sales

If any individual, partnership, joint venture, corporation, or other legal entity owns tangible or intangible personal property, assessable by the county assessor or other authority and then sells the personal property pursuant to the provisions of T.C.A. §§ 47-9-101 et seq., the party possessing the security interest must withhold from the proceeds of the sale an amount sufficient to satisfy the personal property taxes assessed under T.C.A. § 67-5-2101 and subject to the provisions of T.C.A. § 67-5-1805.  A secured party selling the property who fails to withhold and pay such amount is personally liable for such amount to the trustee or other collecting official to which these personal property taxes are due.¹Any action to enforce the provisions of T.C.A. § 67-5-2003(h) must commence against the secured party as a named defendant within four years of the assessment date. Any amount paid by or collected from a secured party pursuant to T.C.A. § 67-5-2003(h) reduces by that same amount the balance due by the taxpayer to the trustee or other collecting official who has been paid, and such amount also becomes a new obligation of payment by the delinquent taxpayer to the secured party, regardless of contractual limitations to the contrary.²