Honorable George H. Sheppard
Comptroller of public Accounts
Austin, Texas
Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-3626
Re: Effective date of Article
XV, House Bill No. 5, Reg-
ular Session, 47th Legisla-
ture.
By your letter of.May 31,'1941, you request our
opinion upon the effective date of the above Act, and In
connection therewithattaoh letter to you from the Legal.
DeRartplent.ot~the.~&oneS$ar..CasSystem, from.whiah.we. quote
HISr0ii0ws: ..I
."In line with out oonversationwith you.on
'May.27,.conqerning Article XV of House Bill No. :
S; passed by the,47th.Leglslature., I advise ~t'hat
we are unable to know definitelywhen Article
~~.Xk.iseffsctive; notwithstandingthe raot.that
we..realizethe law; as a'whole, became effective
on May 1, 1941. Our inability to understand the
erfectlve date of this article grows out 0r Seo-
Mon.7 thereof, whioh.rea&s as follows:
U’S60 . 7. No transferor oertifidatestax-
able under this~Art.iolemade after June 1, 1941,
on which a 'tax is imposeU by this Article, an8
whioh tax Is not paid at the time of such trans-
fer shall be'made the basis of any action or
lagal proceedings,nor shall proof thereof be
offered or reoeived in evidenoe in any court of
this State.'
%inoe the above quoted Motion has the ef-
fect of prohibitingany action or legal proceed-
ings or the Introductionof any proof relative
th&eto where the tax,ls not pala as provided in
said section, it occurs to us tbatit was appar-
ently the intention of the Legislature through
said section to,actually make the taring provi-
sion effeotiveas of June 1. In any event, in
our opinion the above quoted seotion serves to
render inderiniteand uncertain the intention of
the Legislatureas to when the stock transfer
tax becomes effective.v
As stated, House Bill No. 8, enacted by the Forty-
seventh Legislature,became effectiveMay 1, 1941 in its
entirety, except as otherwise expressly provided in some of
the articles comprisingthe Act. As illustrativeof the
latter situation,we point to Section 30 of Article XVII
of the cited Act, providing that *this Article shall take
effect and be in force thirty days from and after its final
passage."
tie'
find no similar provision in Article XV of
this Aot,,'expresslypostponingthe effeotive date thereof.
. from that of the .entlredot. Hence, unless such a legis-..
lative Intent oan, by necessary lmplioation,be read into
the language of Section 9 of Artiale XV, above quoted, Ar-
tiole XV, and eaah seotion thereof except Section 9,,.would
be governed by the effective date of the general'Act, i.e.
"bay 1, 1941. ,.
:'~This
questibnis.purely .oneof statutory-oonstruc-
tion, unassisted by any authoritbes. We think the 'declared
purpose of.Seotion 7 of Article XV, was to 'affordan added
enforcementreature for the administrationof the Act and
the collectionof the tax levied thereby, by providing that
taxable certificates,transferredafter June 1, 1941, with-
out the tax stamp affixed thereon, or upon which the tax is
not otherwise paid should not be offered or reeeived in
evidence or made {he basis of any action or legal prooeed-
ings. The legislativeIntent in Imposing such judicial or
evldenciarylimitationsor conditionsupon such stock cer-
tificates after June 1, 1941, rather than causing such re-
strictionsto become operative on the erfective date of the
general Act, to-wit, May 1, 1941, may well have been to af-
ford ample time for peraons or corporations,having rights
or interests in suoh stock certirioatss,to comply with the
terms of the Act and pay the tax levied, thus protecting
their property rights from the harsh terms of this enforoe-
ment feature. But such conclusion is not inconsistentwith
the accrual of a tax on such taxable certificatesin .thein-
terim.
Honorable George H. Sheppard, Page 3
In ehort, Seotlon 7 of Article Xv refers to an
evidenoiaryor administrativematter rather than to the
levy or accrual of a tar on stock transfers,antihe date
Or June 1, 1941, fixed foreits effectivedate, is limited
to,said Section 7, and Cannot, by implication,be extended
to postpone the effective date of each and every other
section of said Article XV. Had it been the legislative
Intent to cause the accrual of the tax or the effeotive
date of Article XV, in its entirety, to be postponed until
Juneq, 1941, direct and unequivocallanguage, similar to
that used for this purpose in connectionwith Article XVII
of~the Aot, above adverted to, would surely have been em-
ployed.
Trusting the foregoing fully answers your inquiry,
we are
Yours very truly
ATTORRRYGEWERALOFTEXAS
FMN:LM
APPROVED JUN 11, 1941 By S/ F& M. Neff, Jr.
Assistant
a/ Grover Sellers :
‘.,..., APPROVED:OI;INION
COk&ITTRR
FIRST'ASSISTAYT
ATTORREYGENEZAL BY m Chairman