### THEATI-ORNEY GENERAL 9'p\. TE-s

Honorable DavLd Cole CountyAurt~itor Breckenrldge, Texas Dear Sir: OpinionNo. o-2844 Re: Payment by lienholder of taxes on real property,without paging personalproperty and poll taxes due

_ by owner. ~,~ .-* In your letter of ,October22, .1940,you request our opinion inresponse to the followingquestions:

‘!l., .~Isitmandatory that the Tax AssessorCoil. collect a redemption fee on each redemption certificate issued or Is the collection of the fee optionalwith the Tax Assessor-Collector? "2. Is the Tax Assessor-Collector authorized to accept the tax on real estate paid by a,Federal Land Bank which has a lien on the real estate,without collecting the personal property taxwhich is a part of the same assessment? 

### "3. Is the Tax Assessor-Collector authorized to accept the tax on real estate from anindividual other than the one assessed without collecting personal property and poll taxes? “4. Do the statutespermit a finance or loan company to pay the tax on an individual’s real estatewithout paging the individual’spersonal property tax? If so, how can a Tax AssessorCollector collect the personal and polls?” We enclose a copy of our opinionNo. O-1224,which answers your first question.

It Isnow definitely established that the lien provided inArticle 8, Section 15, of our Constitution, and Article 7172,Revised Civil Statutes, attaches only to each separate tract or parcel of land for taxes assessed again& it. Rlcheg v. Moor, 249 S. W. 172, Sup. Ct.,Davis v. West, 

### 5 S. W. (2d) 870; State v.Runt, 

### 207S. W. 

### 636;State Mortgage Corp. v.HonorableDavid Cole, Page 2



### t;;y1g94035

5. w. (2d) 

### 267, (rev.on

. In State v. Hunt, supra, CivilAppeals, itwas held that the G-2844

other grounds), 48 S.W. by the Texarkana Court of statedoes not have a lien on real property to secure the payment of either-personal property or poll taxes due by the owner of the land.

Article 7345a,Vernon's Clvll Statutes, enacted in 1933, expresslyrequires a taxing authority to transfer **td** "anyperson or company that pays to the State, county or any subdivisionthereormentioned hereinbefore,any taxes due upon real uropertg at the request of the owner of said property, the tax lien held by such State, county, or subdivision to secure the payment of such taxes," etc.

Since a piece of land 1s Impressedwith a lien to secure the payment of taxes assessed against italone, and since Article 7345a requires the taxing authority to transfer the lien to a person or company,which at the request of the owner pays the taxesdue upon such land, It follows that under such circumstancespayment of the taxes due on the land must be accepted although unaccompaniedby payment ofpoll tax ati personal property taxes. On the assumption that the payments tendered are upon request of the owner/your second and third questions and first part of your foutiquestlon are answered in the affirmative.

The last part of your fourth question Is a most general Inquiry. We hardly feel like attempting to set out all the powers of collectionwhich a tax collectormight exerblse. However, we will refer you toArticles 

### 7266to 7274, Revised Civil Statutes, which provide conslderable powers for enforcLng collection. Yours very truly

-. ATl!ORNEYGENERAL OF TEXAS

By s/GlennR. Lewis Glenn R. Lewis Assistant
GRL:LM:wc Enclosure APPROVED OCT 30, 1940 s/Gerald C. Mann ATTORNEYGENERAL OF TEXAS Approved Opinion CommitteeBy s/BwB Chalrman