Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1948 )

Hon. Ceo. H. Sheppard Comptroller of Public Acoounta Austin, Texas Opinion Ro. Q-529. Dear Sir: Rer The authority of the Tax Assessor-Collector of Mitchell County to issue a full tax re- ceipt upon payment of the countP1s share of the proceeds of the sale of land deeded to a school district in ggnnt of delinquent You request the opinion of this office upon the qUestiOn presented by Mr. Bruce Hart, Assessor-Collector of Mitchell County, in his letter addressed to you under date of February 23, 1948. We quote Mr. Rart's letter in part as follows: "The person that owned the property down on the river bank let the taxes on ,the property go delinquent for several years and the amounts were as stated in the previous letter, City $200, School $75.00 and County $75.00, so in order to not be sued he deeded then property to the Colorado City Ind. School Mst., in other words gave the School the property, in turn the School sold the property to a Mexican for $40.00 as the property has very little value. "The Sohool Tax Collector wants to ap- ply the $40.00 reoeived from the Mexican on the taxes (to the) three tax agencies in our city. "Can I issue a tax receipt id in full after reaeiiring my part of the $Y0.00." Bon. Qeo. H. Sheppard ,- Page 2 (Q-529) The tax collector has no authority to accept and receipt for any amount leas than the full amount of State and County taxes due by a delinquent taxpayer for a particular year on sny particular tract. Since the delinquent county taxes alone amount to $75.00 it is uite obvious that if the County received all of the ‘9 40.00, the tax collector still could not issue e re- ceipt for all the delinquent taxes due the county and State, The maximumauthority the trx collector has to receive less than the full ampunt of delinquent taxes due by taxpayers is the amount that may be due for any one yea,r upon any one tract * In other words, he may re- ceive the delinquent State and County taxes due by a taxpayer for a psrtioular year on a particular lot or tract without requiring the taxpayer to pay the delin- quent taxes for other years. The rule stated above has been the uniform ruling of this ,office, and we enolose herewith copies of Opinions O-4545 and Q-441 ao holding. It ,follows from what we have said above that the lot is still’;.bUrdened Vith the delinquent State and County taxes ‘and the lien securing the same, and that the owner who deeded the property to the Colorado Inde- pendent School Dlstriot Is still personally liable there- forb This is because the lien and such liability cannot beextk~uibhed’by a private sale to the distriot or any of the other taxing units 0 ‘Only by payment or judicial foreolosure of the tax lien of the respective taxing units and, sale thereunder in a delinquent tax suit as provided in Artlole 7345b, QC.‘S+, can the lien be ex- tinguished e The tax collector has no authority to accept “psrtial payment” of :texes in amounts less than the amount of State and County tax- es whiah were delinquent for any one year on any one tract. Opinions 04545 and Q-441, Delinquent State and County taxes and the lien securing the same cannot be extingulshed by private sale by the deltnquent taxpayer to the taxing unit, but only by payment or judi- Hon. beq.,H. Sheppa" - rage 3 ,(Q-529) 1 air1 foreclosure and sale under the term8 of Artiple 73&b, Q.C.S. Yours very truly A!Pl'oMIIRI@~LOFTIIXAS Assistant 'L?L/I,h 2 encls.