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. 

We acknowledge 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 and there 1s no property from whloh to 

make the tax. Your letter reads as follows: 

$!We are at this time setting up a card record which will 

enable us to carry a perpetual delinquent tax record. 

Among the delinquent taxes which, howeyer, are not a part 

of the delinquent tax records are these delinquent taxes 

known as Insolvent taxes. Our question 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, we find 

a number of busines.s concerns that have been liquidated 

and are no longer in business. We also find a number of 

individuals @gain& whom personal property insolvent 

taxes have been charged who have died or left this part 

of the country and cannot be contacted. Could we as a 

county determine by registered letter, or some other 

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 no known person from whom this tax could be collected 

- would we have any authority to ask’that the records be 

purged of these items?” 
-. . 

Honorable C. J. Wilde, page 2 o-4679 

Article 7263 of Texas Revised Civil Statutes, 1425, provides 

that the tax collector shall make up a list of delinquent or 

Insolvent taxpayers” between April first and fifteenth of each 

year. It further provides, In detail, the manner in which such 

list shall be made up, and for 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 7263 shall 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 and pay 

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 ad valorem taxes that were delinquent prior 

to December 31, 1919, Is forever barred. 

We find no authority in our statutes for the release or 

extinguishment of any ad valorem taxes due the State or county, 

which have become delinquent since December 31, 1919. On the 

contrary the Legislature has seen fit to make It 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. The Legislature has not the 

power to release nor may It 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 made It the duty of the 

tax collector to undertake collection of such insolvent taxes, 

we are pereuaded that there 1s no authority for the procedure 

suggested In your letter, and that your question must be 
Honorable C. J. Wilde, Page 3 o-4679 

answered in the negative. 

Trusting that we have fully answered your inquiry, we are 

Yours very truly 

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS 

a/ Fowler Roberts 

Fowler Roberta 

Assistant 

FR:ej 

APPROVED SEPTEMBER 12, 1942 

s/ Gerald C. Mann 

ATTORX3Y GENERAL OF TEXAS 

APPROVED OPINION COMMITTEE 

By BW3, Chairman