Form 50-182, Tax Certificate – Texas

Form 50-182, Tax Certificate, is the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts form on which a collecting office certifies, after checking its tax records, the delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and any known costs and expenses due on a described property for the listed taxing units.

The form has four steps. Step 1 identifies the property owner and the property account number. Step 2 describes the property. Step 3 lists, line by line, each delinquent year and taxing unit with the amount due, and ends with a total. Step 4 carries the signature of an authorized officer of the collecting office and the date of the certificate. The header block at the top names the collecting office, its mailing address and phone, and the taxing units for which it collects.

The costs and expenses on Step 3 are those provided by Tax Code Section 33.48. The form also states two limits on what the certificate covers: additional rollback taxes may become due when the property receives special appraisal based on its use (Comptroller Rule 9.3040), and property omitted from the appraisal roll as described under Tax Code Section 25.21 is not included [Tax Code Section 31.08(b)].

Under Tax Code Section 31.08, a certificate that erroneously shows no delinquent taxes, penalties or interest, or that omits property because it was left off an appraisal roll, extinguishes the taxing unit's tax lien when the property is transferred with that certificate. A tax certificate issued through fraud or collusion is void. Form 50-182 is one of the Comptroller's property tax forms; it is separate from the allocation, school district value study and tax rate forms on the same agency page.

The collecting office completes and signs Form 50-182. The form asks for the Collecting Office Name, its present mailing address and phone, the taxing units for which it collects, and the signature of an authorized officer of the collecting office, so it is not a form a property owner fills out about their own property.

People who deal with the certificate:

• Collecting offices that need to certify delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and known costs on a described property.
• Property owners named in Step 1, whose name and property account number appear on the certificate.
• Purchasers and other transferees, because under Tax Code Section 31.08 a certificate that accompanies a transfer of property affects the taxing unit's lien and the purchaser's liability.

The form does not cover additional rollback taxes on property under special appraisal, or property omitted from the appraisal roll under Tax Code Section 25.21. The person who was liable for the tax for the year it was imposed, or the year the property was omitted, remains personally liable for the tax and any penalties or interest, even when the lien is extinguished.

The form sets no filing deadline. The triggering event is a transfer of property: Tax Code Section 31.08, quoted on the form, speaks of a person who transfers property accompanied by a tax certificate. The collecting office dates the certificate in the Date of Tax Certificate box next to the authorized officer's signature, so the figures on it are those the office certified from its tax records on that date.

The certificate states the delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and known costs and expenses due at the time it is completed. It does not include additional rollback taxes that may become due under special appraisal, or property omitted from the appraisal roll under Tax Code Section 25.21.

Form 50-182 prints no mailing address, portal or filing office of its own. The collecting office completes and signs it, and under Tax Code Section 31.08 the certificate accompanies the transfer of the property; the form does not name an agency that receives it.

• From the collecting office: the office enters its name, present mailing address and phone at the top and issues the signed certificate.
• Questions about the form: the Property Tax Assistance Division of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts provides property tax information at comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax.
• Questions about a particular property: the Comptroller's property tax forms page says that taxing units answer questions about tax bills, and that its Local Property Information webpage lists taxing units and contact information for appraisal districts and county tax assessor-collectors.

FillingPDF lets you fill out and download the PDF; delivery of the signed certificate follows the practice of the collecting office and the transfer it accompanies.