Description of County Office
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Texas County Tax Assessor-Collector
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Because of the wide range of responsibilities
performed by the tax assessor-collector,
most citizens come in contact with this
office more frequently than any other county
office. Tax assessor-collectors serve to
assess property for the purpose of taxation
and to collect taxes for the county and state. Since tax revenue is a significant source of
income for most county budgets, the office
of tax assessor-collector is very important to
county government.
The job of the tax assessor-collector has
changed over time with most of the
evolution of duties centering around the
combination or separation of assessing and
collecting taxes. Originally, the two
functions of assessing property and
collecting taxes were separate. Under the
Texas Constitution of 1836, the sheriff acted
as tax collector while the governing body of
the county employed a separate assessor.
Numerous subsequent changes modified the
duties and structure of the office. Some of
these changes instructed other county offices
to become the tax assessor and/or collector.
A constitutional amendment in 1932
combined the office of assessor and
collector to become the present office.
Article VIII, Section 14 of the Texas
Constitution states that "the qualified voters
of each county shall elect an assessorcollector
of taxes for the county and this
person will hold office for four years." In
counties under 10,000 in population, the
sheriff acts as the assessor and collector of
taxes unless the voters of the county approve
the creation of a separate office of tax
assessor-collector. Article VIII states that
"the tax assessor-collector shall perform all
the duties with respect to assessing property
for the purpose of taxation and of collecting
taxes, as may be prescribed by the
Legislature."
The major responsibility of the office
includes the assessment, or calculation, of
property value and collection of property
taxes, or ad valorem taxes, for the county.
The office may also enter into contract with
other entities to collect their jurisdictions'
taxes. These other entities may include
school, cities, and special districts. A
reasonable fee may be levied by the tax
assessor-collector for collecting taxes for
another entity, but this fee cannot exceed the
actual collection cost.
The county tax assessor-collector is the
designated voter registrar for Texas
counties, unless the commissioners' court
has created the position of Elections
Administrator to provide this function.
Through mutual agreement, the tax assessorcollector
may transfer this function to the
county clerk, or agree to take the
responsibility for elections in addition to
voter registration. Voter registrar
responsibilities include accepting
applications for voter registration, issuing voter certificates, maintaining voter
registration lists, verifying petitions for local
option elections and submitting required
reports to the Secretary of State's office.
As an agent of the Texas Department of
Transportation, the office of tax assessorcollector
is responsible for the registration,
titling, and title transfer of all motor vehicles
and trailers in the county. State tax on all
automobiles sold in the county is collected
by the tax assessor-collector. Additionally,
the county tax assessor-collector is
responsible for the collection of special fees
imposed by the county and state on coinoperated
vending machines, alcoholic
beverage permits and boat registration and
titling. County fees for these duties are set
by statute. In addition, the county tax
assessor-collector may also serve as the
chief appraiser for the Central Appraisal
District.
A county tax assessor-collector may be held
personally liable for the loss of public funds
in the custody of the tax assessor-collector’s
office, unless a district court declares the
loss is due to a reason other than negligence
or misconduct. Therefore, tax assessorcollectors
must be bonded with the county
and the state.
Before beginning to perform
the duties of office, a person elected or
appointed as county tax assessor-collector
must give a bond for county taxes to the
county commissioners court in an amount
equal to ten percent of the total amount of
the preceding tax year’s county taxes, not to
exceed $100,000. The bond for state taxes
is payable to the governor and must equal
five percent of the net state collections from
motor vehicle sales and use taxes and motor
vehicle registration fees in the county during
the preceding year. This bond may not be
less than $2500 or more than $100,000.
The tax assessor-collector is required to
obtain a state board certification after
election.
The Board of Tax Professional
Examiners oversees the educational
requirements of all tax assessor-collectors
and tax professionals in Texas. The
requirements for certification include formal
education courses, five years experience and
state board exams. After certification, the
Board requires Registered Texas Assessor-
Collectors (RTA) to obtain seventy-five
hours of approved continued education
hours every five years to re-certify, and all
Registered Texas Collectors (RTC) to obtain
twenty-five hours to re-certify.
Richard O. Avery, Director and Stacy D. Morris, Extension Program Specialist
May 2004 |
