Hon. Ken Jennings Opinion No. S-76

County Attorney Mitchell County Re: Authority of the county tax Colorado City, Texas assessor-collector to charge and retain afee for the preparation of certificates respecting the status ofreal property Dear Mr. Jennings: taxes.

You state that the Tax Assessor-Collector of Mitchell County is compensbted upon asalary basis andyou request the opinion of this office upon the following question:

“Where the Tax Assessor and Collector of a county ,charges afee for preparing certificates tobe used in abstracts ofland titles, said certificates stating whether or not there are any State and County taxes due on said property, is this fee tobe retained by the Tax Assessor and Collector or turned over tothe Officers’ Salary Fund? n We think this question has been answered by the Supreme Court of this State in the case ofNueces County v. Currington. 139 Tex. 297, 162 S.W.2d 687 (1942). Int&s case the Court said:

“The amounts of the fees coll.ected and retained by defendant and not paid into the county fund in accordance with the requirements applicable during the time covered e
. fiaggregate the sum of $4,662, the amount sued for by the county. “The entire amount thus retained by defendant was admittedly received by her as compensation for the issuance of tax certificates. Defendant’s position’(and she is sustained init by the Court of Civil Appeals) is that the charges collected therefor were not received by her in her offi,cial capacity. She concedes she was not entitled to charge for the tax statements issued byher certifying that taxes were delinquent, or past due and unpaid on the lands or lots described therein, since she was required by the provisions of article 7324, R.C.S. 1925, Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St. Art. 7324 to issue andfurnish tothose designated therein tax statements so certifying. She contends,Hon. Ken Jennings, page 2 (S-76)

however, that nei.ther artic:le 7324 nor any other article ol the statute required her tofurnish toany one tax st:atemenis certifying.that all taxes had been paid,on aparticular lot or tract of land. She contends;brieily, that inasmuch as there Wb.8 no statutory duty onher part toissue to applicants a tax certificate showing atax status other than that ofdelinquen&$ the service rendered by her infprnishing certificates showing a different tax StbhXS Was apersonal service; and that being b personal service, she was at liberty to make bpersonal charge therefor and thus supplement her official compensation to the extent ofthe amount so chbrged. Her contention was sustained by the courts below. For reasons presently tobe stated’ the holdings **up** onwhich the contention was sustained are erroneous.

“It is our conclusion that the

### fcer collected, whether rightfully or wrongfully, were for services rendered by defendant officially. Itis bpparent on the face of t& certificates themselves that they’were issued offici&Ily. Each certificate carried the dasignation, ‘Tax Certificate, State **of** Texas, county of Nueces,’ over defendant’s name signed thereto, **bS**

‘Tax Collector, Nueces County, Corpus Christi, Texas’; and upon each was impressed her seal of office as the collector of taxes of that **county. ”**  This case **fustier** bold,s th,atit is the duty of the tax assessor-collector to issue astatement or certificate showing the **status** of the taxes due upon any tra.ct ofland or the absence ofdelmquent taxies upon said land, regardless of the purpose for which the certificate may be requ,ested, Inbrief, fees’coll,ected by the tax assessor-collector f~orissuing statements in compliance with Article 7324, V.C,S., (ox **under** Articles 3939 and 72S8a, V.C.S.) **are** fees of offi,ce and must be arc:ounted for by the tax assessor-collector as suc,h; and if **the** assessor-c,ollector, is rompenshted on a salary basis the fees **must** be turned in to **the** Ofj,i.c:ers’ Salary Fund,

SUMh&IRY ---_- Fees collected by the t~axassessor-collector for the issuance of:tax certificates showing the statusHon. Ken Jennings, page 3 (S-,76)

of delinquent taxes uponany particular tract of land should be turned into the Of~ficers’ Salary Fund of the county where the tax assessor-collector is compensated upon a sa.lary bask.
Yours very truly,
JOHN BEN SHEPPERD Attorney General

APPROVED:
W. V. Geppert Taxation Division
Willis E. Gresham Reviewer
Robert S. Trotti First Assistant
John Ben Shepperd Attorney General BY Lq~l$&-J e e Assistant