### OFTEXAS

GERALD

C. MANN AUSTIN aa.IbHonorable C. J. Wilde County Auditor Nueces County Corpus Chrlstl, Texas Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-4679 Re: Authority of county to eliminate from its tax rolls items of delinquent and Insolvent taxes. Weacknowledge receipt of your letter of August 6, 1942, by which you request the opinion of this department advising whether or not a county is authorized to ellmln&te from its tax rolls items of delinquent and insolvent taxes where the delinquent taxpayer cannot be located andthere 1s no property from whloh to makethe tax. Your letter reads as follows: $!We are at this time setting upa card record which will enable us to carry a perpetual delinquent tax record. Amongthe delinquent taxes which, howeyer, are not apart ofthe delinquent tax records are these delinquent taxes knownas Insolvent taxes. Ourquestion pertaining to these taxes is as fol&ows:

“The insolvent taxes as mentioned have dated back to 1919. In going over the records of these taxes, wefind a numberof busines.s concerns that have been liquidated and are no longer in business. Wealso find a numberof individuals @gain& whompersonal property insolvent taxes have been charged whohave died or left this part of the country and cannot be contacted. Could weas a county determine by registered letter, or someother process, that there is no one from whom.the taxes could be collected, submit our findings to the comptrollerts department and eliminate items from the tax rolls, or in a few words, if It could be definitely proven that there is noknownperson from whomthis tax could be collected

- would wehave any authority to ask’that the records be purged of these items?”-. .

Honorable C. J. Wilde, page 2 

### o-4679

Article 

### 7263of Texas Revised Civil Statutes, 1425, provides that the tax collector shall makeupa list of delinquent or Insolvent taxpayers” between April first andfifteenth of each year. It further provides, In detail, the mannerin which such list shall be madeup, andfor the credit to which he shall be entitled by virtue of such list. Article 

### 7264,R.C.S., 1925, provides that the delinquent taxes listed In accordance with Article 

### 7263shall be collected. It reads as follows:

“The allowance of an Insolvent list to the collector in accordance with the provisions of the preceding article shall not absolve any taxpayer or property thereon from the payment of taxes; but the collector shall use all necessary diligence to collect the amounts due on the Insolvent list after It Is allowed, and report andpay over to the proper officers all amounts collected on the same.” Article 

### 3,Section 

### 55,of our Constitution reads as follows:

“The Legislature shall have no power to release or extinguish, or to authorize the releasing or extinguishing, in whole or in part, the Indebtedness, liability or obligation of any corporation or Individual, to this State or to any county or defined eubdlvlslon thereof, or other municipal corporation therein, except delinquent taxes which have been due for a period of at lease ten years.” Article 7336f, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, provides that the collection of advalorem taxes that were delinquent prior to December 

### 31,1919,Isforever barred. Wefind no authority in our statutes for the release or extinguishment of any advalorem taxes due the State or county, which have become delinquent since December 

### 31,1919. Onthe contrary the Legislature has seen fit to makeIt the express duty of the tax collector to “use all necessary diligence to collect the amounts due on the Insolvent list after It Is allowed. ” Article 

### 7264,supra. TheLegislature has not the power to release nor mayIt authorize the release of such taxes unless they have been delinquent for a perlod of at lease ten years. Constitution, Article 3, Section 

### 55,aupra. It has not seen fit to bar the collection of such taxes as have become delinquent since December 

### 31,1919. Since this Is true, and since the Legislature has expressly madeIt the duty of the tax collector to undertake collection of such insolvent taxes, weare pereuaded that there 1s no authority for the procedure suggested In your letter, and that your question must beHonorable C. J. Wilde, Page 

### 3 o-4679

answered in the negative. Trusting that wehave fully answered your inquiry, weare Yours very truly ATTORNEY

GENERAL

OFTEXAS a/ Fowler Roberts

Fowler Roberta Assistant FR:ej APPROVED

SEPTEMBER

12, 1942 s/ Gerald C. Mann ATTORX3Y

GENERAL

OFTEXAS APPROVED

OPINIONCOMMITTEE ByBW3,Chairman