Texas Attorney General Opinion: JM-221 Page: 2 of 6
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U
Honorable Mike Driscoll - Pagie 2 (JM-221)
the tax has been paid, the collector shall refund
the amount of tax imposed on the exempted amount.
The effective date of section 11.431 was January 1, 1982. Acts 1981,
67th Leg., 1st C.S., ch. 13, 5168, at 182. You wish to know whether
section 11.431 permits late applications for residence homestead
exemptions beginning with the 1981 tax year or the 1982 tax year.
Since you raise no constitutional issue, we raise none here. We
conclude that section 11.43L permits the filing of late applications
beginning with the 1982 tax year.
The guiding principl,. of statutory interpretation is the
ascertainment of legislative? intent. State v. Shoppers World, Inc.,
380 S.W.2d 107 (Tex. 1972); State v. Jackson, 376 S.W.2d 341 (Tex.
1964). We conclude for two different reasons that the legislature
clearly intended for section 11.431 of the Tax Code to become
effective beginning with the 1982 tax year.
First, the legislature clearly could not have intended for only
one section of the Tax Code's administration of exemptions provisions
to take effect and reach taKes implied in a year earlier than that in
which the remaining sections take effect. Subsection (a) of section
11.431 requires the chief appraiser to accept and approve or deny an
application for a residence homestead exemption if it is filed within
a specified time. Subsecticin (b) provides that, if a late application
is approved after approval of the appraisal records by the appraisal
review board, the chief appraiser must notify the collector for each
affected taxing unit. The collector is then required to recalculate
the taxpayer's tax liability if the tax has not yet been paid; if the
tax has been paid, the collector is required to refund the amount of
tax on the exempted amount.
It would make no sense for us to conclude that section 11.431
would reach the 1981 ta: year, because tax appraisal districts
administered by chief appra Lsers came into being on January 1, 1982
with the beginning of the 1982 tax year. Acts 1979, 66th Leg., ch.
841, 53, at 2313. Chief appraisers never had authority to accept
exemption applications for the 1981 tax year. Applications in 1980
and 1981 were submitted to the tax assessor-collectors for the
respective taxing units offering them. Appraisal review boards did
not review and approve a:prainal records for the 1981 tax year;
appraisal review boards were created beginning with the 1982 tax year.
Such records were reviewed in 1981 by local boards of equalization
who, unlike the appraisal review boards created after January i, 1982,
did not possess the authority to review and approve or reject the
granting of exemptions by :he local tax assessor-collectors. Compare
repealed V.T.C.S. art. 7206 (and cases decided thereunder) and Tax
Code 5541.01, 4 1.02. The Legislature could not have intended that
appraisal review boards rev:.Lew and approve appraisal records in 1982of 1981 tax rolls which have already been approved by local boards of
equalization. Rather, the legislature intended for section 11.431 top. 993
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: JM-221, text, October 26, 1984; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth272661/m1/2/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.