Honorable W. M. Denison AGO 89 Opinion No. 89 Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions Opinions of the Attorney General August 22, 1933 Taxation—Exoneration by school directors of person owning- real estate from paying school taxes assessed against him. Property owners may not be exonerated front payment of taxes on the ground of indigency. Such exonerations would constitute exemptions forbidden by Article IX, Sections 1 and 2 of the Constitution of 1874. But these provisions do, not prevent exonerations on the grounds of mistake or for unseated lands; nor do these provisions prohibit exoneration! of tax collectors as distinguishing from taxpayers. Honorable W. M. Denison, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Sir: You have asked us to advise you whether a board of school directors may exonerate a person owning real estate from paying school taxes assessed against him. The term "exoneration" as most commonly, used in tax matters means an action of taxing authorities by which a tax collector is relieved of the responsibility of collecting taxes assessed against particular persons or property. In many cases the practical result of such an exoneration is to relieve the taxpayer himself, because no efforts are made thereafter to collect the tax. In other instances, however, the exoneration of the collector is followed by the filing of liens or other methods of enforcing the taxpayer's liability. A situation in which the Legislature has expressly provided for the latter procedure is found in the Act of May 29, 1931, P. L. 280, under which collectors become entitled to exoneration upon returning delinquent taxes to the county commissioners for establishing liens. That, school boards have authority to exonerate tax collectors is settled: Stone v. School District of Carbondale, 102 Pa. Super. Ct. 60, 64 (1931); Chester City School Directors (No. 3), 19 Del. Co. 200, 202 (1928) ; Scranton School Directors, 6 Pa. D. & C. 105 (1924) and In Re Auditors of School District, Pittston Township, 20 Luzerne L. B. 51 (1918). However, you have supplemented your inquiry by saying that you are not concerned as to the authority of school boards to exonerate tax collectors, but only as to the power of the boards affirmatively to relieve the taxpayer himself and his property from tax liability. We shall address ourselves to that problem. Exonerations may be made by school districts on one of three grounds,—mistake, unseated lands, or indigency: Act of June 13, 1836, P. L. 525, Sec. 6; Act of May 8, 1854, P. L. 617, See. 31. Exonerations to correct mistakes are not in reality exonerations at all. Exonerations of unseated lands is clearly in relief of the tax collector only; the lands themselves are returned to be sold at tax sales, under a long established system: See Long v. Phillips, 241 Pa. 246...
