Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1942 )

OFTEXAS
GERALDC. MANN AUSTIN aa.Ib-
Honorable C. J. Wilde
County Auditor
Nueces County
Corpus Chrlstl, Texas
Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-4679
Re: Authority of county to
eliminate from its tax
rolls items of delinquent
and Insolvent taxes.
We acknowledge receipt of your letter of August 6, 1942, by
which you request the opinion of this department advising whether
or not a county is authorized to ellmln&te from its tax rolls
items of delinquent and insolvent taxes where the delinquent
taxpayer cannot be located and there 1s no property from whloh to
make the tax. Your letter reads as follows:
$!We are at this time setting up a card record which will
enable us to carry a perpetual delinquent tax record.
Among the delinquent taxes which, howeyer, are not a part
of the delinquent tax records are these delinquent taxes
known as Insolvent taxes. Our question pertaining to these
taxes is as fol&ows:
“The insolvent taxes as mentioned have dated back to
1919. In going over the records of these taxes, we find
a number of busines.s concerns that have been liquidated
and are no longer in business. We also find a number of
individuals @gain& whom personal property insolvent
taxes have been charged who have died or left this part
of the country and cannot be contacted. Could we as a
county determine by registered letter, or some other
process, that there is no one from whom.the taxes could be
collected, submit our findings to the comptrollerts
department and eliminate items from the tax rolls, or in
a few words, if It could be definitely proven that there
is no known person from whom this tax could be collected
- would we have any authority to ask’that the records be
purged of these items?”
-. .
Honorable C. J. Wilde, page 2 o-4679
Article 7263 of Texas Revised Civil Statutes, 1425, provides
that the tax collector shall make up a list of delinquent or
Insolvent taxpayers” between April first and fifteenth of each
year. It further provides, In detail, the manner in which such
list shall be made up, and for the credit to which he shall be
entitled by virtue of such list. Article 7264, R.C.S., 1925,
provides that the delinquent taxes listed In accordance with
Article 7263 shall be collected. It reads as follows:
“The allowance of an Insolvent list to the collector in
accordance with the provisions of the preceding article
shall not absolve any taxpayer or property thereon from
the payment of taxes; but the collector shall use all
necessary diligence to collect the amounts due on the
Insolvent list after It Is allowed, and report and pay
over to the proper officers all amounts collected on the
same. ”
Article 3, Section 55, of our Constitution reads as follows:
“The Legislature shall have no power to release or
extinguish, or to authorize the releasing or extinguishing,
in whole or in part, the Indebtedness, liability or
obligation of any corporation or Individual, to this State
or to any county or defined eubdlvlslon thereof, or other
municipal corporation therein, except delinquent taxes
which have been due for a period of at lease ten years.”
Article 7336f, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, provides that
the collection of ad valorem taxes that were delinquent prior
to December 31, 1919, Is forever barred.
We find no authority in our statutes for the release or
extinguishment of any ad valorem taxes due the State or county,
which have become delinquent since December 31, 1919. On the
contrary the Legislature has seen fit to make It the express
duty of the tax collector to “use all necessary diligence to
collect the amounts due on the Insolvent list after It Is
allowed. ” Article 7264, supra. The Legislature has not the
power to release nor may It authorize the release of such
taxes unless they have been delinquent for a perlod of at
lease ten years. Constitution, Article 3, Section 55, aupra.
It has not seen fit to bar the collection of such taxes as have
become delinquent since December 31, 1919. Since this Is true,
and since the Legislature has expressly made It the duty of the
tax collector to undertake collection of such insolvent taxes,
we are pereuaded that there 1s no authority for the procedure
suggested In your letter, and that your question must be
Honorable C. J. Wilde, Page 3 o-4679
answered in the negative.
Trusting that we have fully answered your inquiry, we are
Yours very truly
ATTORNEY
GENERALOF TEXAS
a/ Fowler Roberts
Fowler Roberta
Assistant
FR:ej
APPROVED SEPTEMBER12, 1942
s/ Gerald C. Mann
ATTORX3YGENERALOF TEXAS
APPROVED OPINIONCOMMITTEE
By BW3, Chairman