"AN ACT," February 3, 1845

Summary: This act detailed further revisions to the tax law. Required a poll tax of fifty cents for all adult males, a license tax for merchants, and a separate tax for cattle. Also outlined the penalties for not paying a license tax. Section 5 authorized counties to collect taxes in gold or silver or exchequer bills for county purposes.

Supplementary to the several Acts relative to Direct Taxation.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this Act, there shall be levied and collected, a Poll Tax of fifty cents on every white male of this Republic, between twenty-one and fifty years of age.

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That each merchant who sells and disposes of goods and merchandize at retail, shall pay an annual license tax of twenty-five dollars.

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That any person or persons who shall violate any law or laws requiring the payment of license taxes, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on indictment by a grand jury and conviction by a petit jury, shall forfeit and pay such sum of money as shall be double the amount of the license tax which such person or persons so offending, were liable to pay.

Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That on all neat cattle, there shall be levied and collected, a tax of one cent per head, and a tax of one dollar per head on all cattle, horses and mules, belonging to persons residing without the limits of this Republic; provided, that persons residing without this Republic, who shall have or may become the owners of neat cattle

by heirship, shall be only compelled to pay at the rate of one cent per head.

Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, That the county or commissioners' court of roads and revenue of each county of this Republic, are hereby authorized to levy and collect in their respective counties in each year, a tax for county purposes, which shall not exceed the one half of the tax levied for the use of this Republic, and that the county taxes hereafter levied, shall be payable in gold, silver or exchequer bills only, or such county liabilities of the respective counties as the county or commissioners' court may direct; each county or commissioners' court, shall have the privilege of giving a preference to one species of claims that may hereafter accrue over another; and if the counties are so heavily involved as to render it impossible to pay its current expenditures, and its existing debt, the latter may be postponed at the discretion of the county or commissioners' court. Drafts issued by the Government, receivable for direct taxes, shall not be receivable for county taxes.

Sec. 6. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the county Treasurer, to present all retailers who refuse to obtain licenses.

Approved, February 3d, 1845.

Source Copy Consulted: "AN ACT," February 3, 1845, reprinted in H.P.H. Gammel, The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897, 12 vol., (Austin: Gammel Book Co., 1898), 2:1141-1142. http://texinfo.library.unt.edu/lawsoftexas