Case Information
*1 OFFICE OFTHE ATTORNEY GENERAL OFIEXAS AUSTIN
Eionorabla Ton 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- we believe controlli 7 of the utes y for u poll tilx reoe P pt. ZEA~O 8 *IIf ttm taxpayer does not rcslde in a city of ten thouasnd inhubitnnts or more, his poll tax aust either be priid by hizl in person or by soz~e one d.uLy authorized by *2 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 information must be s&ned by ths party who owes the poll tax, and must be de- posited with the tax collector end filed and preserved by 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.
Vie have considered the 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 examination of 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 disfranchise the 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 disfranchise the voter." The case of Parker v. Busby, e.t al, (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 viho had tendered the tax by agents holding duly written authority and to parties who had nade application for their poll tax receipts by mail. Note that it does not appear that the parties making application by mail did so pursuant to assessments against 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 *3 Honorable Toin L. Hartley, Page 3
cor&pel the 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.
tie nOV1 consider Article 2963 as it bears upon this It reads in part n5 follows: question.
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'here a property taxpayer residir& either within or without a city of ten thousand inhabitants or more, hss a poll .tnx assessed against bin or his wife or 'both, he my, at the senie tine that he pays his property tax by bank check or noney order, also pay ,the poll tax of .himself and wife, or either, and in the saine way, 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 certificates shall 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;hsre the poll tax is tendered by an agent, the receipt must be IiUil8d to the tax payer. The r8minder of the paragraph of said article deals, vie believe, with a third x&hod of tendering applications for poll taxes. Namely where a taxpayer "has a poll tax assessed against him or his wife or both, he may, at th, a'saxe tize that he Pays his 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 *4 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.of the above statut e also pay his poll tax in the SC&IS WCSY, that is by ‘mail, proirided he ~onplie~ viith the 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 considering the 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 applications received (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:.lent for the collector to mail the receipts, if the taxpsyar had tendered the tax in person. ;In- doubtedly the Legislature contemIAatea 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.may issue tax receipts in all instances of applications by mail. It reeds in part as follows:
"?/hi18 the 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 "the real and only quetiU -"ion involved is whether or not the tax 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 vfithin or by that time. The opinion holds thot inasmuch as the money and application for the l?oll tax 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 concerned with, namely, whether or not the application for the poll tax, having been made by mail, the tax collector was under a duty to issue the receipt.
The opinion concludes "the tsxpayerjhas paid the poll tax furnished the tax. collector with all the information required, 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." ?ie agree with this former opinion insofar as it holds that a tax collector may lame a tax receipt following r'ebrunry 1, of any year provided he has received the aaplicstion and money for the receipt-previous to that date. However, with ths conclusion thnt'in all instance s the application may 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 agplication re-.de by 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-RXRRAL OFT TiZAS (Signed) BY Hugh Q. Duck Assistant HQR:RS
APFROVZD : November 7, 1939
Gerald C. ?iann (Signed) ~TTO~~;y ,Gziw OF Tu-AS