DAN MORALES 

ATTORNEYGENERAL 

QBffice of the 1ZIttornep Qikneral 

&ate of llkxae 

September 24,1992 

Honorable Robert Rckels Opinion No. DM-171 

Committee on County Affairs 

Texas House of Representatives 

P. 0. Box 2910 

Austin, Texas 78768-2910 

Re: Whether the board of directors of a 

county education district is authorized to 

adopt the discount for early payment of 

property taxes provided by section 31.05 

of the Tax Code on taxes owed to the 

district, and related questions (RQ-3 11) 

Dear Representative Eckels: 

You have asked us to construe section 31.05 of the Tax Code as it relates to 

county education districts and school districts. Specifically, you ask the following 

questions: 

1. Is the board of directors of a county education district 

authorized to adopt the discounts for early payment of property 

taxes provided by Section 31.05, Tax Code, on taxes owed to the 

district? 

2. Does the answer to the first question depend on 

whether one, more than one, or all of the component 

independent school districts that comprise the county education 

district have adopted the discounts for early payment of property 

taxes on taxes owed to an independent school district? 

3. Is the board of trustees of an independent school 

district that is a component school district of a county education 

district and collects both taxes owed to the independent school 

district and taxes owed to the county education district on 

property in the [independent school district] authorized to adopt 

the discounts for early payment of property taxes owed to the 

school district? 

4. Does the answer to the third question depend on 

whether the board of directors of the county education district 

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Honorable Robert Eckels - Page 2 W-171) 

has adopted the discounts for early payment of property taxes 

owed to the county education district? 

Chapter 31 of the Tax Code provides the method by which a taxing unit1 shall 

collect property taxes on taxable property2 listed on the tax rolls3 of the taxing unit. 

See Attorney General opinion DM-94 (1992) at l-3 (describing ammal appraisal 

and assessment process all taxing units must complete). Pursuant to section 31.01, 

each taxing unit’s assessor “shall prepare and mail a tax bill to each person in whose 

name the property is listed on the tax roll or to his authorized agent.” Tax Code 

0 31.01(a); see id. 0 31.01(c), (d) (spe.cifying information assessor must place on tax 

bill). Generally, the assessor must mail out the tax bills prior to October 1 of each 

year. Id But see id. 5 26.135 (permitting school district to continue to collect taxes 

at dates other than those specified in chapter 31 if school district had done so for at 

least ten years before Jamtary 1, 1989). While taxes are due upon receipt of the tax 

bill, section 31.05 permits a taxing unit to offer specified discounts on the tax to 

persons who submit payment within specified time periods after the date the 

assessor mailed the tax bills. Section 31.05 states in pertinent part as follows: 

(a) The governing body of a taxing unit that collects its own 

taxes may adopt the discounts provided by Subsection (b) or 

Subsection (c) of this section, or both, in the manner required by 

law for official action by the body. The discounts, if adopted, 

apply to taxes for a taxing unit for which the adopting taxing unit 

collects taxes if the governing body of the other unit, in the 

manner required by law for official action by the body, adopts 

the discounts or approves of their application to its taxes by the 

collecting unit. Jf a taxing unit adopts both discounts under 

Subsections (b) and (c) of this section, the discounts adopted 

under Subsection (b) apply unless the unit mails its tax biis after 

‘The Proyty Tax Code, title 1 of the Tax code (of which chapter 31 is a Part), uses the term 

king unit” to denote, among other Political units of the state, county education dktrhs and school 

districts Tax &de 0 1.04@2); see Educ Code 0 20.01 (authohiq school distrh to assess and coUect 

annual ad valorem taxes); id I 20.945 (rquiriag county education distr& to levy taxes). 

%ee Tax Code ch. 11 (defining taxable property and exemptions); id 00 21.01, 21.02, 21.03 

(regardiag taxabUity of real property, taugiile pemmal property generally, and intangible property 

P-w. 

3see id. 0 26.09(e) (dcfuliq -tax roll”). 

‘See id. 50 631,6X? (pmidiq for determination of assesor and cAlector of taxing tit). 

p. 900 
Honorable Robert Bckels - Page 3 W-171) 

September 30, in which case only the discounts under Subsection 

(4 wly. 

(b) [Providing discounts a taxing tit may adopt regardless 

of the date on which it mails its tax bills] 

(c) fProviding discotmts a taxing unit may adopt if it mails 

its tax bills after September 301 

See Katz & Muller, Roced.nml Righrs & Remedies under rhe Teras Rqmfy Tar 

Code-A Guide to the Code, Recent Amendma and Developing Care Law, 18 ST. 

MARY’s L.J. 1209,1223 (1987). 

Under section 31.05(a), a taxing unit may adopt the discounts specified in 

subsections (b) and (c) for the timely payment of taxes, but only in the presence of 

one of two circumstances:s Either the taxing unit collects its own taxes; or if it does 

not collect its own taxes, the unit that collects its taxes (the collecting unit) also has 

adopted the discounts. Section 31.05 does not permit a noncollecting taxing unit to 

choose to adopt the discounts unless the collecting tit has adopted the discounts. 

See Hearings on H.B. 1282 Before tbe House Subcommittee on Property Tax, 68th 

Leg. (Apr. 12, 1983) (statements of unidentified representative and committee 

counsel) (tape on file with House Committee Coordinator). 

We note that section 20.945 of the Education Code does not authorize a 

county education district to collect its own taxes; consequently, either the county 

education district must contract with one or more appraisal districts or taxing units 

for the collection of the county education district’s taxes, or the county education 

district’s component school districts must assess and collect its taxes. Bduc. Code 

0 20945(b). As the first sentence of section 31.05(a) applies only to the governing 

body of a taxing unit that collects its own taxes, it does not apply to county education 

districts. Accordingly, under the first sentence of section 31.05(a), only a school 

district that collects its own taxes may adopt the discounts specified in subsections 

SYOU spccrticduy ask how section 20.945 of the Educatioa code will impact awtioll 31.05. 

section 20.945 rquires Utc board of trusteea of a county education dktrict to levy a tax at a rate 

occesary to wUect its local fimd SsJignment under se&m 162.52” of the Education Code. E&c. Code 

f aO.945(a). Sec!icm 16252 de6ne.s a county &cation dishi’s local fund assignment as the product of 

aspceificdtaxrIltc~thc~valucoftbcpopcrtyinthceountycducptiondistridf~thcprior 

tax ycpr as determined by the comptroller. Id. 0 16252(a). In OUT opinion, a county edumtioo dktrict 

may comply with section XE45 and adopt the discmu& section 31.05 authorizes by adjusting the tax 

rate so as to compensate for the revcme the district may lose due to the discounts. 

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Honorable Robert Eckels - Page 4 D+171) 

(b) or (c). Such a school district may adopt the discounts for its taxes regardless of 

whether any taxing unit for which it collects taxes also adopts the discounts. The 

second sentence. of subsection (a) applies to all county education districts and to 

those school districts that do not collect their own taxes. Pursuant to the second 

sentence, the county education district or noncollecting school district can decide 

whether to adopt the discounts only after the collecting unit has adopted the 

diswmlts. 

of course, the boundaries of a county education district may encompass 

more than one taxing unit, and the county education district may contract with more 

than one of those taxing units for the collection of its taxes due on property located 

within the collecting unit.6 Some of the collecting units may adopt the discount, 

while others may not. We must consider, therefore, whether a cotmty education 

district may adopt the discounts section 31.05 of the Tax Code authorize if some, but 

not all, of the collecting units adopt the discounts. 

Prior to 1983, section 31.05 provided that, if a collecting unit adopted the 

discounts specified in the statute, the discounts automatically applied to all taxing 

units for which the collecting unit collected taxes. In 1983, the legislature amended 

section 31.05(a) to read as it does presently, so that once a collecting tit adopts the 

diswm~ts, all of the noncollecting taxing units for which the collecting unit collects 

may choose whether to adopt the discounts. See Acts 1983,68th Leg., ch. 862,s 2, at 

4875-76. We believe that the scheme the legislature devised in section 31.05(a) 

requires that, in respect to the territory for which a collecting tit collects taxes, the 

collecting tit must decide in the first instance whether to offer the statutory 

discounts. Thus, the noncollecting unit camtot offer discounts inside the boundaries 

of a collecting unit that has not adopted the discounts, even if another unit that also 

collects for the noncollecting unit has adopted the discounts. Furthermore, a taxing 

unit camrot adopt discounts that apply to only some of the property within its 

jurisdiction. See Tex. Const. art. VIII, 9 1 (requiring that taxatiortbe “equal and 

uniform”); Attorney General Opinion JM-626 (1987) at 2 (construing article VIII, 

0 1 of the Texas Constitution to require that taxes be equal and uniform within 

taxing jurisdictions). Consequently, we believe that a county education district 

camrot adopt the discouts authorized in section 31.05 unless all of the taxing units 

that are collecting its taxes have adopted the discounts. 

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Honorable Robert Eckels - Page 5 W-171) 

We turn to your specific questions. In answer to your first question, we 

conclude that section 31.05(a) of the Tax Code, together with section 20.945(b) of 

the Education Code, authorizes the board of directors of a county education district 

to adopt the discounts provided in subsections (b) and (c) if all of the taxing tits 

that are collecting the county education district’s taxes have adopted the discounts. 

In answer to your second question, we conclude that the actions of the component 

school districts comprising the county education district are relevant to the comsty 

education district’s adoption of the discotmts only if one or more of the school 

districts collects the county education district’s taxes. In that case, all of the school 

districts that collect the county education district’s taxes, as well as all other taxing 

units that collect the county education district’s taxes, must have adopted the 

discouts before the county education district can adopt them. In answer to your 

third question, we conclude that section 31.05(a) of the Tax Code authorizes the 

board of trustees of a component school district that collects its own and the county 

education district’s taxes to adopt the discount for taxes owed the school district. In 

answer to your fourth question, the answer to the third question is independent of 

any action taken by the board of directors of the county education district of which 

the collecting school district is a part. 

SUMMARY 

Under section 31.05(a) of the Tax Code, the board of 

trustees of a county education district may adopt the discounts 

provided for the timely payment of taxes under subsections (b) 

and (c) of that section only if all of the taxing units that collect 

the county education district’s taxes have adopted the discounts. 

The board of trustees of an independent school district that is a 

component of a county education district and collects its own 

taxes as well as the county education district’s taxes may adopt 

the discotmts. 

DAN MORALES 

Attorney General of Texas 

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Honorable Robert Eckels - Page 6 W-171) 

WILL PRYOR 

First Assistant Attorney General 

MARYKELLER 

Deputy Assistant Attorney General 

RENEAHIcKs 

Special Assistant Attorney General 

MADELEINE B. JOHNSON 

Chair, Opinion Committee 

Prepared by Kymberly K. Oltrogge 

Assistant Attorney General 

p. 904