Summary: Since Property Tax Appraisals are about to accost your mail box and your wallet, here is collection of articles on how to protest your property tax appraisal. This information will be updated often, so bookmark and ya'll come back.
Latest Update: Thursday, 21 April, 2022
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, 05 April 2022
Excerpt
Many Texans began receiving their property appraisals from their respective appraisal districts this week. We have heard from many who report higher than expected appraisals, fearful of yet even more increases in their property tax burdens. Are you prepared to protest them?
What Can You Do?
If you are a property owner you can generally do three things to ease your property tax burden:
Protest Your Appraisal
As a taxpayer, it behooves you to protest your appraisals every year with your appraisal district. The appraisal paperwork you were sent should provide you with all of the details as to how and when to protest. The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) recently shared a ‘Best Practices’ primer with tips on what information to have available and how best to do so.
You have the ability to do things like request the evidence for your perceived appraisal and the right to protest said appraisal. Generally, they count on most property owners not protesting.
Homestead Exemption
If you have not already, ensure your primary residence has a homestead exemption. This exemption removes a portion of your home’s value from the tax calculation, thereby lowering the taxes owed. You can find out whether your residence qualifies here.
An exemption also qualifies property owners for what is considered the ‘homestead cap’, limiting the appraised value of your home to no greater than 10 percent per year.
Dialogue With Your Elected Officials
It should go without saying that one of the best ways to ensure your taxes stay reasonable is to engage your elected officials at both the local and state levels. Though it is state lawmakers who have the ability to reform how the property tax is collected it is ultimately local officials primarily making the decisions about the rates and what it is used for.
Eliminate the Property Tax
At TFR, we believe the levying of the property tax is immoral and that it should ultimately be eliminated. There are several alternatives to the tax that could be administered in a more equitable manner but it could also be an option to eliminate and not replace the tax, whereby instead forcing the government to actually cut spending on frivolous things.
It has been reported that state lawmakers can expect nearly a $25 billion surplus next legislative session. TFR believes that the surplus should be returned to its rightful owners, you the taxpayer, in the form of tax relief.
Republicans have controlled every statewide office and the state legislature for nearly two decades. Despite this and promises to address the ever-increasing property tax burden, they have merely continued to allow the budget to grow and instead provide trinkets of ‘property tax relief’ by ‘slowing the rate by which it grows’. Taxpayers should demand better.
Resources:
Willow Park Civics > Issues > Property Tax
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