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.