DocketNumber： O-2844
Judges： Gerald Mann
Filed Date： 7/2/1940
Status： Precedential
Modified Date： 2/18/2017
THEATI-ORNEY GENERAL 9'p\.TE-s Honorable DavLd Cole County Aurt~itor Breckenrldge, Texas Dear Sir: Opinion No. o-2844 Re: Payment by lienholder of taxes on real property, without paging per- sonal property and poll taxes due _ by owner. ~,~ .-* In your letter of ,October22, .1940, you request our opinion in response to the following questions: ‘!l., .~Is it mandatory that the Tax Assessor- Coil. collect a redemption fee on each redemption certificate issued or Is the collection of the fee optional with the Tax Assessor-Collector? "2. Is the Tax Assessor-Collector author- ized to accept the tax on real estate paid by a,Federal Land Bank which has a lien on the real estate, without collecting the personal property tax which is a part of the same assessment? "3. Is the Tax Assessor-Collector author- ized to accept the tax on real estate from an- individual other than the one assessed without collecting personal property and poll taxes? “4. Do the statutes permit a finance or loan company to pay the tax on an individual’s real estate without paging the individual’s per- sonal property tax? If so, how can a Tax Assessor- Collector collect the personal and polls?” We enclose a copy of our opinion No. O-1224, which answers your first question. It Is now definitely established that the lien provid- ed in Article 8, Section 15, of our Constitution, and Article 7172, Revised Civil Statutes, attaches only to each separate tract or parcel of land for taxes assessed again& it. Rlcheg v. Moor,249 S.W. 172
, Sup. Ct., Davis v. West, 5 S. W. (2d) 870; State v. Runt,207 S.W. 636
; State Mortgage Corp. v. Honorable David Cole, Page 2 G-2844 t;;y1g94035 5. w. (2d) 267, (rev. on other grounds), 48 S.W. . In State v.Hunt, supra
, by the Texarkana Court of Civil Appeals, it was held that the state does not have a lien on real property to secure the payment of either-personal property or poll taxes due by the owner of the land. Article 7345a, Vernon's Clvll Statutes, enacted in 1933, expressly requires a taxing authority to transfer td "any person or company that pays to the State, county or any subdivision thereor mentioned hereinbefore, any taxes due upon real uropertg at the request of the owner of said prop- erty, the tax lien held by such State, county, or subdivision to secure the payment of such taxes," etc. Since a piece of land 1s Impressed with a lien to se- cure the payment of taxes assessed against it alone, and since Article 7345a requires the taxing authority to transfer the lien to a person or company, which at the request of the own- er pays the taxes due upon such land, It follows that under such circumstances payment of the taxes due on the land must be accepted although unaccompanied by payment of poll tax ati personal property taxes. On the assumption that the payments tendered are upon request of the owner/your second and third questions and first part of your foutiquestlon are answered in the affirmative. The last part of your fourth question Is a most gen- eral Inquiry. We hardly feel like attempting to set out all the powers of collection which a tax collector might exerblse. However, we will refer you to Articles 7266 to 7274, Revised Civil Statutes, which provide conslderable powers for enforc- Lng collection. Yours very truly -. ATl!ORNEYGENERAL OF TEXAS By s/Glenn R. Lewis Glenn R. Lewis Assistant GRL:LM:wc Enclosure APPROVED OCT 30, 1940 s/Gerald C. Mann ATTORNEYGENERAL OF TEXAS Approved Opinion Committee By s/BwB Chalrman