Request By:
Mr. J. W. Ecton, Jr.
Sheriff
Nicholas County
Post Office Box 323
Carlisle, Kentucky 40311
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Asst. Duputy Attorney General
You request our opinion on the question as to whether or not you, as sheriff, can receipt for partial payment of tax bills entrusted to you for collection. Several residents do not want to pay their fire tax, but are willing to pay the other taxes on the tax bill. We assume you refer to the tax of a fire protection district. See KRS 75.040.
First, KRS 134.140(2) provides that the sheriff shall not receive or receipt for any taxes until the tax bills have been delivered to him by the county clerk, as provided in KRS 133.220 and 133.230. Upon delivery to him of the tax bills, the sheriff shall mail a notice to each taxpayer, showing the total amount of taxes due the state, county, school fund, and other levies, the date on which the taxes are due, and any discount to which the taxpayer may be entitled upon payment of the taxes prior to a designated date. See KRS 133.220(4). Such discounts are applied where the payments are made within the time limits of KRS 134.020. But the discount applies to the particular state, county, or district tax, where the entire tax due the particular tax authority is paid.
KRS 134.170(1) reads:
"When any money is paid to the sheriff, he shall immediately enter the payment upon his record books and give to the person paying it a receipt specifying the amount and on what account the money was paid, and when paying any money he shall take a similar receipt. The sheriff shall deliver the original tax bill to the taxpayer when the taxpayer has paid his tax in full. When a taxpayer pays an omitted tax bill, the sheriff shall deliver the original omitted tax bill to the taxpayer, and no other receipt or tax bill shall be evidence that the taxpayer has paid his omitted tax."
It is our opinion that under KRS 134.170(1), the sheriff can receive partial payments on taxes, but the sheriff shall deliver the original tax bill to the taxpayer only when the taxpayer has paid his taxes [shown on the tax bill] in full. This view is strongly buttressed by KRS 134.215(2), which states in part that "all unpaid tax bills and bills upon which partial payments have been accepted in the possession of the sheriff upon the date of expiration of his term shall be turned over to the incoming sheriff . . . ." (Emphasis added.)
Powers of officers are limited to those conferred expressly by statute or which exist by necessary and fair implication. But, these implications are never to be extended beyond fair and reasonable inferences.