TAXATION AND REVENUE SYSTEM—TEXAS. 
TEXAS. 1 
227 
Texas depends primarily upon the general property 
tax for state, county, and local revenues. There is an 
elaborate system of “ occupation ” taxes on various 
lines of business, incorporation and franchise taxes on 
corporations, and some special taxes on the gross 
receipts of transportation and insurance companies. 
These taxes are in addition to the general property 
tax. There are also state, county, and municipal poll 
taxes. 
An inheritance tax law was enacted in 1907. 
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS. 
ARTICLE VIII. 
Sec. 1. Taxation shall be equal and uniform. All property 
in this state, whether owned by natural persons or corpo 
rations, other than municipal, shall be taxed in proportion 
to its value, which shall be ascertained as may be provided 
by law. The legislature may impose a poll tax. It may also 
impose occupation taxes, both upon natural persons and upon 
corporations other than municipal, doing any business in this 
state. It may also tax incomes of both natural persons and 
corporations other than municipal, except that persons engaged 
in mechanical and agricultural pursuits shall never be required 
to pay an occupation tax : Provided, That $250 worth of house 
hold and kitchen furniture belonging to each family in this 
state shall be exempt from taxation: And provided further, 
That the occupation tax levied by any county, city, or town 
for any year on persons or corporations pursuing any profes 
sion or business shall not exceed one-half of the tax levied 
by the state for the same period on such profession or business. 
Sec. 2. All occupation taxes shall be equal and uniform upon 
the same class of subjects within the limits of the authority 
levying the tax, but the legislature may, by general laws, 
exempt from taxation public property used for public purposes, 
actual places of religious worship, places of burial not held 
for private or corporate profit, all buildings used exclusively 
and owned by persons or associations of persons for school 
purposes (and the necessary furniture of all schools) and in 
stitutions of purely public charity; and all laws exempting 
property from taxation other than the property above men 
tioned shall be void. 
Sec. 3. Taxes shall be levied and collected by general laws 
and for public purposes only. 
Sec. 4. The power to tax corporations and corporate prop 
erty shall not be surrendered or suspended by act of the 
legislature by any contract or grant to which the state shall 
be a party. 
Sec. 5. All property of railroad companies of whatever de 
scription lying or being within the limits of any city or in 
corporated town within this state shall bear its proportionate 
share of municipal taxation, and if any such property shall not 
have been heretofore rendered, the authorities of the city 
of town within which it lies shall have power to require its 
rendition and collect the usual municipal tax thereon, as on 
other property lying within said municipality. 
1 This compilation is derived mainly from the following 
sources: 
Sayles’ Annotated Civil Statutes of the State of Texas. 
Sayles & Sayles: The Gilbert Book Co., St. Louis, Mo., 1898. 
Supplement to Sayles’ Annotated Civil Statutes, 1897 to 
1904. W. W. Herron: The Gilbert Book Co., St. Louis, Mo., 
1903-1908. 
The Session Laws to 1913. 
Sec. 8. All property of railroad companies shall be assessed 
and the taxes collected in the several counties in which said 
property is situated, including so much of the roadbed and 
fixtures as shall be in each county. The rolling stock may be 
assessed in gross in the county where the principal office of 
the company is located, and the county tax paid upon it shall 
be apportioned by the comptroller, in proportion to the dis 
tance such road may run through any such county, among 
the several counties through which the road passes, as a part 
of their tax assets. 
Sec. 9. The state tax on property, exclusive of the tax nec 
essary to pay the public debt and of the taxes provided for 
the benefit of public free schools, shall never exceed 35 cents 
on $100 valuation; and no county, city, or town shall levy 
more than 25 cents for city or county purposes, and not to 
exceed 15 cents for roads and bridges on the $100 valuation, 
except for the payment of debts incurred prior to the adoption 
of the amendment. September 25, A. D. 1883; and for the 
erection of public buildings, streets, sewers, waterworks, and 
other permanent improvements, not to exceed 25 cents on 
the $100 valuation in any one year and except as is in this 
constitution otherwise provided; and the legislature may also 
authorize an additional annual ad valorem tax to be levied 
and collected for the further maintenance of public roads: 
Provided, That a majority of the qualified property tax-paying 
voters of the county, voting at an election to be held for that 
purpose, shall vote such tax, not to exceed 15 cents on the 
$100 valuation of the property subject to taxation in such 
county. And the legislature may pass local laws for the 
maintenance of public roads and highways without the local 
notice required for special or local laws. 
Sec. 10. The legislature shall have no power to release the 
inhabitants of, or property in, any county, city, or town from 
the payment of taxes levied for state or county purposes, 
unless in case of great public calamity in any such county, 
city, or town, when such release may be made by a vote of 
two-thirds of each house of the legislature. 
Sec. 11. All property, whether owned by persons or cor 
porations. shall be assessed for taxation and the taxes paid 
in the county where situated, but the legislature may by a 
two-thirds vote authorize the payment of taxes of nonresidents 
of counties to be made at the office of the comptroller of 
public accounts. And all lands and other property not ren 
dered for taxation by the owner thereof shall be assessed at 
its fair value by the proper officer. 
Sec. 12. All property subject to taxation in and owned by 
residents of unorganized counties shall be assessed and the 
taxes thereon paid in the counties to which such unorganized 
counties shall be attached for judicial purposes; and lands 
lying in and owned by nonresidents of unorganized counties, 
and lands lying in the territory not laid off into counties, shall 
be assessed and the taxes thereon collected at the office of the 
comptroller of the state. 
Sec. 13. (Provision for tax sales and redemption.) 
Sec. 14. (Election of county assessor for a two-year term.) 
Sec. 15. (Taxes on land to be a lien thereon.) 
Sec. 16. (Sheriff to be collector of taxes for the county, 
except in counties having over 10,000 inhabitants, when a col 
lector is to be elected.) 
Sec. 17. The specification of the objects and subjects of taxa 
tion shall not deprive the legislature of the power to require 
other subjects or objects to be taxed, in such manner as may 
be consistent with the principles of taxation fixed in this con 
stitution. 
Sec. 18. The legislature shall provide for equalizing, as near 
as may be, the valuation of all property subject to or ren