.
EIICATTORNEY GENERAL
OFTEXAS
Honorable George R. Sheppard
Comptroller of-Fubllc Accounts
Austin, Texas
Dear Sir: Opinion NO. o-6914
Re: Whethen under Article 7070, re-
ceipts from rural accounts outside
of incorporated towns are to be
taxed under the 14 per cent tax
bracket.
Your letter of October 31, 1945, reads as follows:
"Section 1 of Article 7070, R.C.S. 1925 provides:
"'Each individual, company, corporation, or
association owning, operating, managing,
or controllfng any telephone line or lines,
or'ang telephones wlthin this State and
charging for the use of same, shall make
qu.arterly,on the first day of January,
April, July and October of each year, a
report to the Comptroller, under oath of
the indivldual, or of the president,
treasurer, or superintendent of such com-
paw, corporation or association, showing
the gross amount recefved from all buslness
within this State during the preceding
quarter in the payment of charges for the
use of its line or lfnes, telephone and
telephones, and from the lease or use of
any wires or equipment within this State
during said quarter, Said fndiviauais,
companies, corporations, and associations,
at the time of making said report, shall
pay to the State Treasurer, and there is
hereby levied upon said individuals, com-
panies, corporations, and associations,
an occupation tax for the quarter beginning
on said date, equal to one and one-half
(l*] per cent of the gross receipts,,as
shown by said report, received from doing
business outside of incorporated cities
and towns and within incorporated citfes
Honorable George H. Sheppard, page 2 o-6914
and towns of less than two thousand,
five hundred (2,500) Inhabitants, accord-
ing to the last preceding Federal Cen-
sus; an occupation tax for the quarter
beginning on said date, equal to one and
three-fourths (1 3/h) per cent of said~
gross receipts as shown by said report,
received from aoing business within ln-
corporated cities and towns of more than
two thousand, five hundred (2,500) inhab-
itants, and not more than ten thousand
(lO,OOO) inhabitants, according to the
last preceding Federal Census; an occupa-
tion tax for the quarter beginning on
said date, equal to two and two hundred
seventy-five thousandths (2.275) per cent
of said gross receipts, as shown by said
report, received from doing business
within Incorporated cities and towns of
more than ten thousand (10,000) inhabi-
tants, according to the last preceding
Federal Census.'
“f l * *
"Please tell me if all rural accounts outside of
incorporated towns (regardless of the population of
the incorporated town) would come under the one and
one-half (14) tax bracket? There are cases of army
camps that are located six, eight or ten miles out-
side of incorporated towns of ten thousand (10,000)
population OP more that are serviced by the exchange
within the Incorporated town,"
We call your particular attention to the language of the
statute that the occupation tax shall be "equal to one and one-
half (13) per cent of the gross receipts, D e 0 received from do-
ing business outside of incorporated cities and towns and within
incorporated cities and towns of less than two thousand, five hun-
dred (2,500) inhabitants."
The receipts from all business done outside the limits of
incorporated cities and towns, regardless of the size of such in-
corporated cities, come wlthin the basic bracket of one and one-
half per cent.
Honorable George H. Sheppard, page 3 o-6914
Yours very truly
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS
By s/Arthur L. Moller
Arthur.~L.Moller
Assistant
ALM/JCP/wc
APPROVED NOV 8, 1945
s/Carlos C. Ashley
FIRST ASSISTANT
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Approved Opinion Committee by s/BWB Chairman