By Culberson H.B. No. 374
76R372 SMH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the deferral of a suit to collect delinquent taxes on
1-3 the homestead of an elderly person.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Sections 33.06(a) and (b), Tax Code, are amended
1-6 to read as follows:
1-7 (a) An individual is entitled to defer or abate a suit to
1-8 collect [a] delinquent taxes [tax] if the individual [he] is 65 or
1-9 older and [he] owns and occupies as a residence homestead the
1-10 property on which the taxes [tax] subject to the suit are imposed
1-11 [is delinquent].
1-12 (b) To obtain a deferral, an individual must file with the
1-13 chief appraiser for the appraisal district in which the property is
1-14 located an affidavit stating the facts required to be established
1-15 by Subsection (a) [of this section]. The individual may file the
1-16 affidavit before, on, or after the date the taxes on the property
1-17 become delinquent. The chief appraiser shall notify each taxing
1-18 unit participating in the district of the filing. After an
1-19 affidavit is filed under this subsection, a taxing unit may not
1-20 file suit to collect delinquent taxes on the property until the
1-21 individual no longer owns and occupies the property as a residence
1-22 homestead.
1-23 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
1-24 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-1 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-2 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-3 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-4 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-5 passage, and it is so enacted.