SRC-VRA S.B. 725 78(R)   BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research Center   S.B. 725
78R2727 SMH-DBy: Wentworth
Intergovernmental Relations
3/31/2003
As Filed


DIGEST 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 preceding 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, S.B. 725 addresses the issue of omitted property by extending
the 21-day deadline for payment of taxes.    

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to
a state officer, institution, or agency. 

SECTION BY SECTION 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 by
Section 31.02 is postponed to February 1 of the first year that will
provide a period after the date the tax bill is mailed in which to pay the
taxes before they become delinquent that is at least equal to one year for
each tax year in which the property was erroneously omitted from the tax
roll. 

 (e) Makes a conforming 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 paid not
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.