Honorable W. M. Denison
AGO 22
Opinion No. 22
Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions
Opinions Of the Attorney General
August 24, 1931
Taxation—School Tax Collectors—Return of Delinquent Taxes to County Commissioners—Acts of May 9, 1929, P. L. 1684, and May 29, 1931, P. L. 280.
Collectors of school taxes may return unpaid taxes to the county commissioners under the Acts of 1929, P. L. 1684 and 1931, P. L. 280, irrespective of whether there is on the taxed land, personal property from which the lax could be collected.
Under Section 21 of the Act of 1931, P. L. 280, no returns of delinquent taxes may be made to the county commissioners If the taxing authorities direct the collector not to make such returns.
Honorable W. M. Denison, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Sir: "We have your letter of July 28, in which you ask whether, under the Act of May 9, 1929, P. L. 1684, collectors of school taxes may make returns to the county commissioners of unpaid taxes on seated lands, regardless of whether there is personal property on the land from which the taxes could be collected. You call attention to Section 559 of The School Code, which requires every tax collector to account to the treasurer of the school district on or before June 1 of each year for all taxes appearing on his duplicate, except items from which he has been exonerated and those levied on real estate upon which there is no personal property out of which the taxes might' have been collected.
The Act of May 21, 1913, P. L. 285, which provided for the return to the county commissioners of unpaid taxes on seated lands, expressly limited such returns to cases where no personal property from which the taxes could be collected could be found on the land. This portion of the Act of 1913 remained unchanged until 1925, when by the amendment of May 14, 1925, P. L. 735, the limitation was stricken from the Act.
The next legislation on the question is found in the Act of May 4 1927 P. L. 712, which is an amendment to Section 21 of the Act of April 15, 1834, P. L. 509. The original section prescribed the remedies that might be had against persons and personal property for collection of delinquent taxes. The amendment of 1927 added the following provision:
"* * * No failure to demand or to collect any taxes by distress and sale of goods and chattels, or by imprisonment of the delinquent, shall
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