In 2001, we sold Searcy County, Arkansas property and reserved 1/2 the mineral rights. My parents sold land in Carroll Cty, Arkansas in the 1950s and reserved 1/2 of the mineral rights.
I live in Texas and had been under the impression that Arkansas mineral rights were not taxed if the minerals were not leased. I have never paid tax on mineral rights except when I also owned the property. No taxing authority had ever sent me a bill for mineral rights taxes as they do for property ownership taxation.
I recently discovered that someone purchased the Carroll Cty mineral rights, because I had failed to pay taxes on them. I contacted Carroll Cty, Arkansas offices and was told that Carroll Cty no longer taxes non-leased mineral rights. I was told that they had no way of knowing when the purchase of my mineral rights for unpaid taxes was made. They also did not know when Carroll Cty, Arkansas stopped taxing mineral rights.
I contacted Searcy Cty, Arkansas (3 offices) and was told that Searcy County used to tax mineral rights that were unleased ‘a long time ago’, but that the county no longer does so, since they are non-productive. I don’t know if our mineral rights have been bought up for unpaid taxes since the 2001 sale or not. That county apparently keeps no record of mineral rights ownership and taxation, so I don’t know how to find out if we still own the rights or if someone has bought them for unpaid taxes, too.
Does anyone know when mineral rights stopped being taxed in Searcy and Carroll Counties? Thank you.