Texas Attorney General Opinion: O-5408 Page: 3 of 6
This text is part of the collection entitled: Texas Attorney General Opinions and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.
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Honorable Geo, H. Sheppard - page 3 0-5408
istence of the present war, to the provisions of that particu-
lar enactment, Rather, the reference to the Federal Internal
Revenue Act of 1942 was merely for the purpose of identifica-
tion of the policy enacted by the Federal Congress with re-
spect to withholding taxes from wages paid public officers
and employees, with which policy the Legislature of this State
determined, by S. B. No. 2, to co-operate0
This, we think, is made clear by observing that the
State could have legitimate concern only with the question
whether its public officers and employees, as such, should be
required to assume the obligation to the Federal Government
of withholding from salaries or wages paid to public officials
and employees taxes on income due to the Federal Government
under the laws promulgated by the Congress of the United
States. Other provisions of the law could not legitimately
concern the State as such, for the State's action or non-action
could not reduce the liability of the officers and employees of
the State to the Federal Government for income taxes due on sal-
aries or wages earned by them, nor could the State, by action
or non-action, in anywise impede or restrict the operation of
provisions of the Federal Taxing Act affecting public officers
and employees in their capacity as private citizens,
These observations make it plain that the only object
or purpose of the passage of S. Bo Noo 2 was to give the con-
sent of the State that the Federal Government might impose the
duty on State officers and employees as such to withhold, at
the source, from salaries and wages paid to public officers
and employees, income taxes assessed by the Federal Government0
That this is the true object and purpose of the enactment is
emphasized by the recitations of the emergency clause, incor-
porated in Section 2 of the enactment.
To reach any other conclusion we must attribute to
the Legislature the intent to do-operate with the Federal
Government only in the collection of the "Victory" Income lax
in the amount of five per cent, no more and no less,as such
tax is provided for in the Internal Revenue XEt of 1942, and
in no other act of the Congress0 Such construction would re-
quire the holding that, if the Congress, in the Internal Reve-
nue Act of 1943, should reduce the Victory Income Tax to one
per cent or raise it to seven per cent, the legislative con-
sent given in S. B0 No. 2 should not apply. To give the Act
such a narrow and literalistic interpretation is to observe
the form and ignore the substance; Rather, wve think, the Act
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: O-5408, text, 1943; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth262680/m1/3/?q=war: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.