THEATI-ORNEY GENERAL 

9'p\. TE-s 

Honorable DavLd Cole 

County Aurt~itor 

Breckenrldge, Texas 

Dear Sir: Opinion No. o-2844 

Re: Payment by lienholder of taxes on 

real property, without paging personal property and poll taxes due 

_ by owner. 

~,~ .-* 

In your letter of ,October 22, .1940, you request our 

opinion in response to the following questions: 

‘!l., .~Is it mandatory that the Tax AssessorCoil. collect a redemption fee on each redemption 

certificate issued or Is the collection of the 

fee optional with 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 

tax which 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 statutes permit a finance or 

loan company to pay the tax on an individual’s 

real estate without paging the individual’s personal property tax? If so, how can a Tax AssessorCollector collect the personal and polls?” 

We enclose a copy of our opinion No. O-1224, which 

answers your first question. 

It Is now definitely established that the lien provided in Article 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, 207 S. W. 636; State Mortgage Corp. v. 
Honorable David Cole, Page 2 

t;;y1g94035 5. w. (2d) 267, (rev. on 

. In State v. Hunt, supra, 

Civil Appeals, it was held that the 

G-2844 

other grounds), 48 S.W. 

by the Texarkana Court of 

state does 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, expressly requires a taxing authority to transfer td 

"any person or company that pays to the State, county or any 

subdivision thereor mentioned 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 Impressed with a lien to secure the payment of taxes assessed against it alone, 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 taxes due upon such land, It follows that under 

such circumstances payment of the taxes due on the land must 

be accepted although unaccompanied by payment of poll 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 collection which a tax collector might exerblse. 

However, we will refer you to Articles 7266 to 7274, Revised 

Civil Statutes, which provide conslderable powers for enforcLng collection. 

Yours very truly 

-. ATl!ORNEYGENERAL OF TEXAS 

By s/Glenn R. Lewis 

Glenn R. Lewis 

Assistant 

GRL:LM:wc 

Enclosure 

APPROVED OCT 30, 1940 

s/Gerald C. Mann 

ATTORNEYGENERAL OF TEXAS 

Approved Opinion Committee By s/BwB Chalrman