Does a Texas county employee who calculates the county tax rate have to be certified as a tax professional?

Texas AG Opinion JM-1020: Must the Person Who Calculates a County Tax Rate Be Certified?

Plain-English summary

Every year a Texas county has to calculate its tax rate, and the county auditor in Collin County wanted a clear answer to a practical staffing question: does the person doing that math have to be a certified tax professional? The Attorney General's answer was a conditional one. It depends on whether the county tax assessor-collector requires it.

Here is the reasoning. Texas has a Property Taxation Professional Certification Act (article 7244b) that makes people who do appraisal, assessment, and collection work register with and eventually get certified by the Board of Tax Professional Examiners. The first step was deciding which bucket the tax-rate calculation falls into. The Act defines "assessment" as the functions described in chapter 26 of the Tax Code that are performed to determine an amount of ad valorem tax. Calculating the effective tax rate lives in section 26.04, which is part of chapter 26. True, the rate calculation does not by itself fix the tax bill on any particular property (that happens later, under section 26.09), but it is a necessary step on the way there. So the Attorney General concluded that computing the tax rate is an "assessment" function under the Act.

That does not mean everyone who touches the calculation has to be certified, though. The Act does not require every person performing assessment functions to register. Under section 11(2), a person doing assessment work who is not the tax assessor-collector, the tax collector, or the designated chief administrator of the unit's assessment functions has to register only if the "chief administrator of the unit's tax office" requires it. For a county, that chief administrator is the constitutional county tax assessor-collector. So the decision rests with that officer. If the county tax assessor-collector requires the person doing the rate calculations to register and certify, then that person must. If not, then not.

There is one absolute in the opinion. The county tax assessor-collector must always register and pursue certification, whether or not that officer personally runs the tax-rate calculations. The discretion the officer has is over other employees who do assessment work, not over the officer's own obligation.

For a county deciding who can crunch the effective-tax-rate numbers, the takeaway is that the auditor or another designated employee can do the calculation without automatically needing a certification, unless the county tax assessor-collector decides to require it. The certification requirement is a lever the assessor-collector controls, not a blanket rule that attaches to the task itself.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1989. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Texas tax-professional certification and property tax law have moved since 1989. The Property Taxation Professional Certification Act (article 7244b, V.T.C.S.) was later recodified into the Occupations Code, the registration and certification body has been reorganized (its functions moved through successor agencies), and the chapter 26 tax-rate provisions (including the effective and rollback rate mechanics and terminology) have been amended repeatedly. A county deciding who may perform or must certify to do tax-rate calculations today should check the current Occupations Code and Tax Code rather than rely on the old article and section numbers here.

Who this opinion affected (as of 1989)

County tax assessor-collectors: The opinion confirmed they must register and pursue certification with the Board of Tax Professional Examiners in any event, and that they hold the authority to require other assessment-function employees to register.

County auditors and other designated employees: The opinion told them that doing the section 26.04 tax-rate calculation did not automatically require certification; the requirement attached only if the county tax assessor-collector imposed it.

Commissioners courts: The opinion clarified how the certification requirement interacts with a court's designation of who performs the tax-rate calculation.

Common questions

Does calculating the county tax rate require tax-professional certification?
It is an "assessment" function under article 7244b, but a person who is not the county tax assessor-collector must register and certify only if the county tax assessor-collector requires it.

Who decides whether the calculator must be certified?
The county tax assessor-collector, who is the "chief administrator of the unit's tax office" for a county under section 11(2) of the Act.

Does the county tax assessor-collector have to be certified?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded the county tax assessor-collector must register and proceed to certification in any case, whether or not that officer personally performs the calculations.

Why is the tax-rate calculation an "assessment" function if it does not set anyone's tax bill?
Because it is a function described in chapter 26 of the Tax Code and a necessary step toward the eventual determination of ad valorem tax on particular properties under section 26.09, so it falls within the Act's definition of "assessment."

Background and statutory framework

The Collin County Auditor asked whether the county auditor or other officer or employee appointed by the commissioners court to complete the effective tax rate calculation under section 26.04 of the Tax Code must be certified by the Board of Tax Professional Examiners. Article 7244b (V.T.C.S.), the Property Taxation Professional Certification Act, requires certain persons performing functions related to tax appraisal, assessment, and collection to register with and eventually obtain certification from the Board of Tax Professional Examiners. Section 2 defines "appraisal" (functions in chapters 23 and 25 involving an estimate or opinion of value), "assessment" (functions in chapter 26 performed to determine an amount of ad valorem tax), and "collections" (functions in chapter 31 and sections 33.02, 33.03, and 33.04). Section 11 lists who must register, including chief appraisers and appraisal staff (subsection (1)); the tax assessor-collector, tax collector, or designated chief administrator of the unit's assessment or collections functions, and other assessment/collections personnel whom the chief administrator requires to register (subsection (2)); and persons engaged in appraisals for ad valorem tax purposes (subsection (3)). Section 17 directs the board to adopt certification requirements and time periods.

The Attorney General concluded that a person performing the tax rate calculations under section 26.04 is performing assessment functions within the meaning of section 2(2). Section 26.04 directs the governing body of a taxing unit (which includes a county, Tax Code section 1.04(12)) to designate an officer or employee to calculate the "effective" tax rate that will raise the revenue needed to meet the unit's obligations, and also to calculate the "rollback tax rate" for the hearing and rollback election provisions (sections 26.06 and 26.07) and to publicize the rate and related figures. Although the section 26.04 calculations do not finally determine the ad valorem tax on particular properties, they are a necessary step leading to that determination by the county tax assessor-collector under section 26.09, so they are among the chapter 26 functions performed to determine an amount of ad valorem tax. (The AG noted the term "assessment" has been construed broadly; Attorney General Letter Advisory No. 117 (1976) had read the county tax assessor-collector's assessment duties under article VIII, section 14 to include appraisal as well as determining the tax amount, before a 1980 amendment to article VIII, section 18 separated appraisal from the assessor-collector's assessment functions, see Wilson v. Galveston County Central Appraisal Dist.; see also Attorney General Opinion MW-4 (1979).)

Not all persons performing assessment functions must register, however. Under section 11(2), a person performing assessment functions who is not the tax assessor-collector, tax collector, or designated chief administrator of the unit's assessment functions must register only if the "chief administrator of the unit's tax office" requires it. For a county, that chief administrator is the constitutional county tax assessor-collector (Tex. Const. art. VIII, § 14; Tax Code § 6.21; Attorney General Opinions JM-918 (1988) and JM-833 (1987)). The Attorney General therefore concluded that a person designated to perform the section 26.04 tax rate calculations for a county who is not the county tax assessor-collector must register with and pursue certification by the Board of Tax Professional Examiners under article 7244b only if required to do so by the county tax assessor-collector. The county tax assessor-collector, whether or not that officer personally performs the calculations, must in any case register and proceed to certification (Attorney General Opinion H-1120 (1978)).

Citations

Statutory and constitutional authority:

• Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. art. 7244b (Property Taxation Professional Certification Act), § 2 (definitions of appraisal, assessment, collections); § 11 (who must register, including the section 11(2) chief-administrator provision); § 17 (certification requirements)
• Tax Code § 26.04 (designation of officer/employee to calculate the effective and rollback tax rates); §§ 26.06, 26.07 (hearing and rollback election); § 26.09 (determination of tax on particular properties); § 1.04(12) (taxing unit includes a county); § 6.21 (county tax assessor-collector)
• Tex. Const. art. VIII, § 14 (elected county assessor-collector); art. VIII, § 18 (1980 amendment separating appraisal from assessment)

Cases:

• Wilson v. Galveston County Central Appraisal Dist., 713 S.W.2d 98 (Tex. 1986) (effect of the article VIII, section 18 amendment on the assessor-collector's functions)

Related opinions:

• Attorney General Letter Advisory No. 117 (1976); Attorney General Opinions MW-4 (1979), JM-833 (1987), JM-918 (1988), H-1120 (1978)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/jim-mattox/jm-1020
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1989/jm1020.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor OCR errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS

February 24, 1989

Mr. Pasco Parker
Collin County Auditor
Office of County Auditor
McKinney, Texas 75069

Opinion No. JM-1020

Re: Whether computation of a county tax rate under section 26.04 of the Tax Code may be performed by an individual who is not certified under article 7244b, V.T.C.S. (RQ-1573)

Dear Mr. Parker:

You ask:

Is the county auditor or other officer or employee of the county appointed by the commissioners court to complete the effective tax rate calculation under section 26.04 of the Tax Code required to be certified by the Board of Tax Professional Examiners?

V.T.C.S. art. 7244b, the Property Taxation Professional Certification Act, requires that certain persons performing functions related to tax appraisal, assessment, and collection register with and eventually obtain certification from the Board of Tax Professional Examiners (the "board"). Section 2 of the act defines "appraisal," "assessment," and "collections" as follows:

(1) 'Appraisal' means those functions described in Chapters 23 and 25, Tax Code, that are performed by employees of political subdivisions or by persons acting on behalf of political subdivisions and that involve an estimate or opinion of value of a property interest.

(2) 'Assessment' means those functions described in Chapter 26, Tax Code, and performed by employees of political subdivisions or by persons acting on behalf of political subdivisions, to determine an amount of ad valorem tax.

. . . .

(6) 'Collections' means those functions described in Chapter 31 and Sections 33.02, 33.03, and 33.04, Tax Code.

Section 11 of the act provides:

The following persons shall register with the board:

(1) all chief appraisers, appraisal supervisors and assistants, property tax appraisers, appraisal engineers, and other persons with authority to render judgment on, recommend, or certify appraised values to the appraisal review board of an appraisal district;

(2) the tax assessor-collector, tax collector, or other person designated by the governing body of a taxing unit as the chief administrator of the unit's assessment functions, collections functions, or both; and other persons who perform assessment or collections functions for the unit whom the chief administrator of the unit's tax office requires to register; and

(3) all persons engaged in appraisals of real or personal property for ad valorem tax purposes for an appraisal district or a taxing unit.

Section 17 directs the board to adopt by rule "requirements for the certification of registrants." The rules must require that the registrants in the various categories attain board certification within the periods of time specified in section 17.

We believe that a person performing the tax rate calculations for a county under section 26.04 of the Tax Code is performing assessment functions within the meaning of section 2(2) of article 7244b. Essentially, section 26.04 directs the governing body of a taxing unit to designate an officer or employee to calculate the "effective" tax rate which if imposed on taxable property will raise the tax revenues needed to meet the taxing unit's obligations and other expenses for the tax year.[1] Such "officer or employee" must also, under section 26.04, calculate the "rollback tax rate," for purposes of the hearing and rollback election provisions of sections 26.06 and 26.07, and cause to be publicized the tax rate and certain figures involved in the calculation. Though the tax rate calculations under section 26.04 do not finally "determine an amount of ad valorem tax" for particular taxable properties, the calculations are a necessary step leading to such eventual determinations of ad valorem taxes for particular properties by the county tax assessor-collector under section 26.09. The section 26.04 calculations are thus among the "functions described in Chapter 26 . . . to determine an amount of ad valorem tax" within the meaning of section 2(2) of article 7244b.[2]

Not all persons performing assessment functions are required to register with the board, however. Under section 11, subsection (2), a person performing assessment functions who is not a tax assessor-collector, tax collector, or other person designated as chief administrator of the unit's assessment functions, must register with the board only if the "chief administrator of the unit's tax office" requires such registration.

The "chief administrator of the unit's tax office" who would be entitled under section 11, subsection (2), to require that a person performing assessment functions register with the board must be, in the case of a county, the constitutional officer, i.e., the county tax assessor-collector. See Tex. Const. art. VIII, § 14; Tax Code § 6.21; and Attorney General Opinions JM-918 (1988) and JM-833 (1987).

Thus, in response to your question, we conclude that a person designated to perform tax rate calculations for a county under section 26.04 of the Tax Code, must, if he is not the county tax assessor-collector, register with and proceed to certification by the Board of Tax Professional Examiners under V.T.C.S. article 7244b only if so required by the county tax assessor-collector. (Clearly, the tax assessor, whether or not he himself performs the tax rate calculations, must so register and proceed to certification. See Attorney General Opinion H-1120 (1978).)

SUMMARY

A person designated to make the tax rate calculations under Tax Code section 26.04 must register with and proceed to certification by the Board of Tax Professional Examiners if the county tax assessor-collector so requires. V.T.C.S. art. 7244b. The county tax assessor-collector must in any case so register and proceed to certification.

JIM MATTOX
Attorney General of Texas

MARY KELLER
First Assistant Attorney General

LOU MCCREARY
Executive Assistant Attorney General

JUDGE ZOLLIE STEAKLEY
Special Assistant Attorney General

RICK GILPIN
Chairman, Opinion Committee

Prepared by William Walker
Assistant Attorney General

Footnotes

[1] The term "taxing unit" as used in section 26.04 includes a county. See Tax Code § 1.04(12).

[2] The term "assessment" has been construed very broadly. For example, Attorney General Letter Advisory No. 117 (1976) ruled that the duties of the county tax assessor-collector with respect to assessing property for the purpose of taxation under the Texas Constitution article VIII, section 14, included "the appraisal of property as well as a determination of the amount of tax to be imposed." (A 1980 amendment to article VIII, section 18, subsequently separated the appraisal from the assessment functions of the county tax assessor-collector. See Wilson v. Galveston County Central Appraisal Dist., 713 S.W.2d 98 (Tex. 1986).) See also 54 Tex. Jur. 2d Taxation § 86; Attorney General Opinion MW-4 (1979).