Every telephone company owning any property required to be valued by the commissioner under section 39 shall annually, on or before March 1, make a return to the commissioner signed and sworn to by its treasurer. The commissioner may, for cause shown, authorize a later filing, but in no case later than April 1. This return shall be in the form and detail prescribed by the commissioner and shall contain all information which he shall consider necessary to enable him to make the valuations required by section thirty-nine, and shall relate, so far as is possible, to the situation of the company and its property on January first of the year when made. Property returned to the commissioner as herein provided need not be included in the list required to be filed by a telephone or telegraph company under section twenty-nine. Failure to make the return required by this section shall bar the company from any appeal of the commissioner's determination of value under section thirty-nine, unless such company was unable to comply with such request for reasons beyond such company's control. If any company, or any treasurer thereof, in a return made under this section makes any statement which is known to be false in a material particular, such false statement shall bar it from any appeal under section thirty-nine.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 59, § 41