T~CATTQRNEYGENERAL 

OF TEXAS 

PRICE DANIEL 

AuwrIN 11. -rExAs 

ATTORNEY GENERAL 

July 25. 1949 

Hon. L. A. Woods 

State Superintendent 

Department of Education 

Austin, Texas 

Opinion No. V-862. 

Rt: The authority of a school 

district to sue to collect 

personal property taxes on 

automobiles and related 

questions. 

Dear Dr. Woods: 

Your opinion request submitted at the request of the 

officials of a school district is as follows: 

‘1. Referring to Article 7297, it states that a 

school district has no authority to file suit for taxes 

on ‘unrtndtred’ personal property unless the amount 

of @t tax is in excess of twenty-five dollars. 

“We have a condition in our district wherein the 

owners of several thousand automobiles refuse to rtndtr them to tht~ tax assessor as the idea has gotten around that since small items of personal property tax 

cannot be sued on, the owners of the automobiles refuse to render the property and therefore evade the tax. 

Our School Board has put pressure on owners of these 

unrendtrtd automobiles and with the cooperationof the 

school tax collector we have indicated to these owners 

if the taxes art not paid that suit will be filed. 

“If the above article refers to this type of ptrsonal property tax as not being subject to suit, we of 

course do not wish to threaten suit and then not be able 

to back:it up. In fact, Board members have the feeling 

that if we have no better law to enforce the collection 

of this tax, it would be a better policy to leave these 

unrendtrtd automobiles. as well aa the other agtomobilts, off the tax roll entirely. We come to this line of 

thinking for the reason that people who do render their 

automobiles and pay taxes on them art being discriminated against, when about forty per cent of the taxpayers refuse to render their automobiles and get by with 

it because we have no law to enforce collection. 
Hon. L. A. Woods, Page 2 (V-862) 

“Another point in connection with this, would the 

school board be showing discrimination in the asstssmtnt of taxes on automobiles by making sixty per cent 

pay and letting forty per cent go tax free? 

‘2. Another practice which has been followed 

in our tax offices in the past has been to drop automobiles from the tax roll when they become five years 

old. Would our tax assessor be justified under the law 

in dropping automobiles from the tax roll at any given 

period. so long as the automobile has value? 

‘3. Is there any law which allows a man and his 

family one automobile for transportation to be exempted 

from taxes under the old law that a man and his family 

were entitled to a wagon and team exempt from taxes? ” 

Article 7297, V. C. S.. applies only to State and County 

taxes, and not to school districts, as your request implies. 

Section 1, Article VIII of the Constitution of this State, 

provides in part as follows: 

‘All property in this state . . . other than municipal, shall be taxed . . . in proportion to its value. * 

Section 2 of Article VIII of the Constitution declares that the Ltgislaturt may exempt from taxation certain specified property, and 

declares further that ‘all laws exempting property from taxation 

other than the property above mentioned shall be null and void.” 

Automobiles art not listed in the' Constitution as an item of proptrty which the Legislature is authorized to exempt from taxation. 

Therefore automobiles are taxable in the same manner and to the 

same extent as other personal property subject to the jurisdiction 

of school districts. 

School districts have no inherent power to tax as dots 

the State. but the Constitution and statutes have conferred upon them 

the powtr,to levy ad valorem taxes to support the schools tstablished and maintained therein. Crabb v. Ctlestt Independent School 

District, ,105 Ttx. 194. 146 S,W.-fzBT1912) BI 

L.1 District, 285 SW. 271 (Comm. ALP. 

tw1tt Megargel C. 

~~L@J).~‘N 0 useful purpost wilTIt served to discuss these constitutional and statutory 

provisions in detail. It is oufficient to say that all property, real 

and personal, not otherwise exempt, is subject to ad valortm taxes 

by school districts as to such property as is located within the confines of such a district. This, of course, includes automobiles. 
Hon. L. A. Woods, Page 3 (V-862) 

Article 7147, V. C. S., defines personal property for the 

purpose of taxation. It provides in part as follows: 

‘Personal property for the purpose of taxation 

shall include all goods, chattels and effects . . .” 

Wtbater defines a chattel as “any item of movable or immovable 

property not real estate. * An automobile falls in this classification. 

Moreover, any doubt as to the legislative intent is removed by Article 7162, V. C. S., which indicates the ptrsonalty which shall be 

listed or rendered by taxpayers for taxation. This article requires 

that the following items, among others, with their respective values, 

must be listed: 

‘Number of carriages, buggies, wagons, automobiles, bicycles, motorcycles, or other vthiclts~tmr kind.” 

Section 1 of Article VIII of the Constitution provides: 

“Taxation shall be equal and uniform.” 

It would be a violation of this constitutional provision if sixty per 

cent of the automobiles and their owners were assessed for taxes 

by a school district, and the remaining forty per cent were arbitrarily and intentionally not assessed at all. This procedure would be 

neither equal nor uniform. Our Supreme Court has laid down the 

rule that ‘equality of taxation necessarily depends upon uniformity 

of assessment.” Livtlyv. Missouri Q K. T. Ry. Co., 102 Tex. 545, 

120 S.W. 852 (1909). Such a procedure would be discriminatory. 

In answer to your question No. 2, you art advised that 

there is nothing in the statutes to support the arbitrary dropping of 

automobiles from the tax rolls at any age of such car. Automobiles. 

as other property, are to be taxed according to their value. Age, of 

course, would be a factor in determining such value. Article 7174, 

V. C. 5.. provides: 

‘Personal property of every description shall be 

valued at its true and full value in money.” 

In answer to your question No. 3. you are advised as 

first stated that there is no law in this State exempting automobilea 

from taxation. One automobile is exempt to the family under Article 3832, V. C. S., from forced salt, that is, from execution in satisfaction of debts; but this exemption has no reference to taxation. 

This rtatute specifically refers to carriages. Our courts, however, 

have held that an automobile is a carriage within the meaning of 

this statute, Willis v. Shoelman, 206 S.W.2d 283 (Tex. Civ. App. 1947). 
. .- . 

Hon. L. A. Woods, Page 4 (V-862) 

SUMMARY 

Automobilts.art subject to ad valortm taxation 

by school districts as any other item of personal property. The taxing officials of school districts have no 

authority to assess sixty or any other percentage of the 

owners of automobiles, and purposely relieve others of 

assessment. All automobiles that have a value art subject to ad valorem taxation by school districts. There 

is no statute exempting family automobiles from taxation. Arts. 3832, 7147, 7162, 7297, 7298, V. C. S.; Ttx. 

Const. Art. III, Sec. 55; Art. VIII, +zcs. 1, 2; Crabb v. 

Ctlestt Independent School District, 105 Tex. 194, 146 

m 520 (I9 ) Bltwitt v. Megargtl C. L. School Distric; 285 S.W. 571 (Comm. App. 1926)’ Lively v. Misii& & K. T. Ry. Co., 102 Ttx. 545, li0S W 852 (-l9’09); 

wl?ns v. Shotlman. 236 S.W.2d 283 (Ttx. &ii. App. 1947). 

Yours very truly 

ATTORNEY GENERALOFTEKAS 

: 

LPL/mwb 

L. P. Lollar 

Assistant 

FIRST ASSISTANT 

ATTORNEYGENERAL