Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion

OFFICE OFTHE ATTORNEY GENERAL OFIEXAS AUSTIN EionorablaTon L. I?artloy crimine1 District r*ttoraeg Edinburg, Texas nse to it he aollootor a ,or bank oheok in an opinion upon dooa not reside krticle 2961 Vernon'8 Civil Btst- utes we believe controlli 7 of the ZEA~O8 y for u poll tilxreoePpt. *IIfttm taxpayer does not rcslde in a city of ten thouasnd inhubitnnts or more, his poll tax aust either be priidby hizlin person or by soz~eone d.uLyauthorized by Honorable To5 L. Hartley, Page 2 hin :n writinS to pay the same, and to furnish the collector the information necessary to fill out the blanks in the poll tax receipt. Such authority and informationmust be s&ned by ths party who owes the poll tax, and must be de- posited with the tax collector end filed and preservedby him." Article 2803, Vernon's Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, provides that when the poll tax is paid by an agent, the tax receipt shall not be delivered to the agent, but shall be sent by mail to the taxpayer, or kept and delivered to the taxpayer in person by the tax c,olloctor. Viehave consideredthe case of Kallis v. Williams, 110 s. i;'. 785, (1908 T. C. .A.Galveston),to which you refer, asholding "The right of suffrage conferred by the Constitution does not depend upon the payment of his poll tax *in person' by the voter." Upon en examinationof this case we have con- cluded that while it is in line with several authorltieo hold- ing that if a poll tax is issued irregularly it will not operate to disfranchisethe voter, however, the principle is not to be oonstrued, in our opinion, as authority for o tax collector to issue a poll tar other than as provided by statute. The court in this case said: "The statute upon the subject directs that the voter shell pay the tax in person, or give a written order therefor; but it does not provide that a failure to obtain his re- ceipt in the manner directed by the statute will disfranchisethe voter." The case of Parker v. Busby, e.tal, (T. C. A. Galves- ton, 1914), 170 S. X. 1042, was a vindamus proceeding to require the tax collector of Uardin County to issue a poll tax receipt both to parties vihohad tendered the tax by agents holding duly written authority and to parties who had nade applicationfor their poll tax receipts by mail. Note that it does not appear that the parties making application by mail did so pursuant to assessmentsagainst them. "%e think it is only necessary to add that the law does not provide for the pay-. ment by a taxpayer of his poll taxes through mail and that the plaintfffs * *.* who 52ht to make payment end obtain their poll tax receipts in this way, have no right to Honorable ToinL. Hartley, Page 3 cor&pelthe collector to issue receipts to the= * i dl: From the fore&oin;,it is our oginion thet pursuant to Article 2961, an applicaut for a poll tas receipt Eust n608soarily furnish the CoLlector the isformtion necessary to fill out the blanks in the poll tar receipt, along with the money, either (1) in person or (2) by a duly authorized person authorized in writing to aot a3 agent for hi:l. tienOV1 consider Article 2963 as it bears upon this question. It reads in part n5 follows: When in cases pemitted by this Title, the tax is paid by an agent, the tax receipt shall not be delivered to such agent, but shall be sent by nail to the taxpayer or kept and delivered to him in person by the Tax Collector. h'herea property taxpayer residir& either within or without a city of ten thousand inhabitantsor more, hss a poll .tnxassessed against bin or his wife or 'both,he my, at the senietine that he pays his property tax by bank check or noney order, also pay ,thepoll tax of .himselfand wife, or either, and in the saineway, nnd it shall be the duty of the Tax Collector in suoh cases, to zmi.1 such poll tax receipts, together with the property tax receipt to such property taxpayer. Zxaxption certificatesshall be mailed in like ‘mnner, with the proper- ty tax receipt upon the paynent of proper- ty taxes." The first sentence undoubtedly refers to Article 2961, and requires that in instances v;hsrethe poll tax is tendered by an agent, the receipt must be IiUil8dto the tax payer. The r8minder of the paragraph of said article deals, viebelieve, with a third x&hod of tendering applicationsfor poll taxes. Namely where a taxpayer "has a poll tax assessed against him a'saxe tize that he Pays his or his wife or both, he may, at th, property tax by bank check or noney zrteEI,al.;:W; ~~h&P;C& tax of himelf and wife, or eitb?r, measure to imply that the taxpayer my a&Y by zmi: for a Poll tax reoeipt provided he has been assessed for the ~011 tax and Honorable Tom L. Hartley, Page 4 tenders his bank check or noney or&r in paymnt of sAid ho11 tax at the Sue time that he pays his property tax. It is cei- tain that a taxpayer may >ay his property tax by mail. He may by authority.ofthe above statute also pay his poll tax in the SC&ISWCSY, that is by ‘mail,proiridedhe ~onplie~ viiththe other provisions of Article 2963 and pays his ?ro>erty tax in that manner and.2t the same time. Too, there is good reason for the exception,for in consideringthe purpose of the statutes to prevent fraudulent and improper issuance of poll tax receipts, such evils are for practical purposes avoided when the receipts are fssued on applicationsreceived (with money order or bank check) pursuant to specific assessments. Only property oitners may pay their poll taxes in this manner. Obviously persons il- legally seeking the issuunco of tax receipts meet %ith the prac- tical difficulty, under thij method, of having'to pay at the same time a property tax, which of course they will not do ex- cept where paying their own. Further.,in such instances the tax collector is unuer a duty "to mail such poll tax receipts, to- gether with the property tax receipt to such property taxpayer." It would be a needless require:.lentfor the collectorto mail the receipts, if the taxpsyar had tendered the tax in person. ;In- doubtedly the LegislaturecontemIAatea in such instances,a ten- der by mail. The taxauyer, it is to be noted, must, pursuant to Article 2965, tender all the information therein called for to enable the collector to make out a poll tax pecsipt. At this saint it is necessary to consider a for‘mer opinion of this department rendered on February 13, 1931, by Everett B. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General. Article 2963 was construed to provide that the tax collector.mayissue tax receipts in all instances of applicationsby mail. It reeds in part as follows: "?/hi18the foregoing article refers to a poll tax that hat?been assessed cgcinst a per- son, we do not think that an assessment is necessary in order to allow the payment thereof by mail." The above stated opinion was directed primarily to -"ion involved is whether or not the tax "the real and only quetiU collector can issue a 1930 voting poll tax receipt after Jnn- uary 31, 193.1." In that instance the money for the poll tax had been directed to tha tax collector teforc the final date of January 31, tut the tax collector had failed to issue the re- ceipt vfithinor by that time. The opinion holds thot inasmuch as the money and applicationfor the l?olltax receipt was re- ceived within the prescribed stntutory time limit the tax col- Honorable Tom L. Hartley',Page 5 lector was under a duty to issue P receipt. Necessarily ln- volved in ths question before the department at that time was also the one we are presently concernedwith, namely, whether or not the applicationfor the poll tax, having been made by mail, the tax collector was under a duty to issue the receipt. The opinion concludes "the tsxpayerjhaspaid the poll tax furnished the tax.collector with all the informationrequired, prior to February 1, and in doing.so, in our opinion, he has done all that the law requires of him in order to obtain a poll tsx receipt." ?ieagree with this former opinion insofar as it holds that a tax collectormay lame a tax receipt following r'ebrunry 1, of any year provided he has received the aaplicstionand money for the receipt-previousto that date. However, with ths conclusion thnt'in all instances the applicationmay be made by mail we are forced to differ. Accordingly it is our opinicn that Article 2961 auth- orizes a tax collector to issue poll tax receipts only upon ap- plication by the taxpayer in person or by his agent upon written authority and that Article 2963 authorizes the tax collector to issue poll tax receipts upon agplicationre-.deby mail provided the taxpayer in such instance has been usse:sed for the poll tax and tenders payment therefor at the same time that he pays his. property tax, with bank check or money order. Yours very truly ATTORNhY G-RXRRALOFTTiZAS (Signed) BY Hugh Q. Duck Assistant HQR:RS APFROVZD: November 7, 1939 Gerald C. ?iann (Signed) ~TTO~~;y ,Gziw OF Tu-AS