C.S.H.B. 1519 78(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


C.S.H.B. 1519
By: Casteel
Local Government Ways and Means
Committee Report (Substituted)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Current Texas law requires a chief appraiser, if the chief appraiser
discovers that real property was omitted from an appraisal roll in any one
of the five years or personal property was omitted in one of the two
preceding years, to appraise the property as of January 1st of each year
it was omitted and to enter the property and its value in the appraisal
records.  Subsequently, a tax assessor-collector is required to calculate
the tax for each year and then a taxpayer would have 21 days to pay the
back taxes.  However, a taxpayer could be faced with a situation where he
or she is forced to pay five years of back taxes in 21 days.  As proposed,
CSHB 1519 addresses the issue of omitted property by extending the 21 day
deadline for payment of taxes. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any
additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or
institution. 

ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 31.04, Tax Code, by adding Subsection (a-1) and
amending Subsection (e), as follows: 

(a-1)  Provides that if a tax bill is mailed that includes taxes for one
or more preceding tax years because the property was erroneously omitted
from the tax roll in those tax years, the delinquency date provided in
Sec. 31.02 is postponed to February 1 of the first year that will provide
a period of at least 180 days after the date the tax bill is mailed in
which to pay the taxes before they become delinquent. 

 (e)  Makes a conforming change and nonsubstantive change.

SECTION 2.  Amends Section 33.011(a), Tax Code, to require the governing
body of a taxing unit to waive penalties and to authorize it to provide
for the waiver of interest on a delinquent tax if the tax is not paid
later than the 21st day after, rather than the third anniversary of, the
date the taxpayer knows or should know of the delinquency. 

SECTION 3.  Makes application of Section 31.04, Tax Code, of this Act
prospective. 

SECTION 4.  Effective Date: September 1, 2003.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2003.


COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

CSHB 1519 amends the proposed Section 31.04 (a-1), Tax Code, to define the
period of time of at least 180 days after the tax bill is mailed in which
to pay the taxes before they become delinquent and removes the deadline
proposed by the filed bill for payment.