Take your Appraisal District to Binding Arbitration

[TransPecos]

Like any one else, I would ask the most I possibly could with a straight face if I were selling. I won’t be selling for 8 years so I’m not concerned about it. This thread is about real estate TAXES.

Property taxes are a game as others have pointed out. They either get you on the tax rate or the appraisal, or some combination of the two. And it changes from year to year..aka the long game. My home is paid for, so I write a check every year for my taxes. The amount is silly. I realize most folks escrow their taxes with their mortgage, and just get a notice their payment is going up $80 a month. They shrug and move on. Same principle with income taxes, if we were paid our full gross and had to write a monthly check for income taxes there would be full scale tax revolt.

The plain fact that they came at me with $503k and then when pressed HARD I got the phone call saying, “Well the formal appraisal guys are in a hurry and don’t look at things closely and I’m at $453,500” is indicative of their tactics. They are just throwing stuff against the wall to see if it sticks.

[Burnadell]

So would you take $503,000 for it if that is more than it's worth?

I am not really trying to be a jerk, and I don't blame you for fighting the appraised value. I would, also!

Nevertheless, I find that most people who say the tax assessed value is too high would not accept that price if they were selling the house.

We all know that most of the time, the tax assessed value is somewhat below the true market value.

Keep fighting it and good luck. (I know you won't answer my question )

[perow]

Y’all keep fighting them, it makes my BIL have to work overtime . He is a tax appraiser in the Dallas area.

[Starman]

Well, by law, they can’t increase the value by more than 10% per year.

So he absolutely should have protested just based on that fact.

I’m guessing most people don’t want to pay more taxes than they are legally obligated to.

[WTJim]

They can absolutely raise the value more than 10% but they can only receive tax revenue from the 10% if you're Homesteaded. Raw land has NO appraised value tax cap. Example: 2018 value was $500,000 and 2019 proposed value comes in at $585,000 they will keep appraised value at $585,000 but will only receive tax revenue from $50,000 of the $85,000 increase. Here's the kicker, in 2020 they raise your value $58,500 for a total of $643,500. They just got you for a 10% raise and going to get you on the $35,000 surplus value from 2019....HAMMER them with protests every single year. They intentionally hit everyone for 10%+ this year fearing the tax cap bill would pass and it did, praise God. Now they will have to find new and innovative ways to tax us such as what Travis County is proposing a Parks tax added like school board tax line item.

[Starman]

Yeah, I - perhaps mistakenly - assumed he was talking about a homesteaded property.

[TransPecos]

It is my homestead but WT is right. They can raise as much they want. They are building in multiple years increases now because of the law changes.

Example: House is worth $100K

Next year they raise your value to $115K

You will only pay tax on $110K that year. But the following year even if the appraisal district does nothing you will pay tax on $115K.

[meltingfeather]

Take your Appraisal District to Binding Arbitration

https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494/

33 out of 55
Could be better. Could be worse. No matter what it is, people would complain about it!

[meltingfeather]

Compare our tax situation to Florida. No income tax and very low property tax. Sales tax is about the same as ours if I remember right.

Florida is 47th... almost the lowest in the country.
Move there... it’s sunny!

[SoTXAg06]

That’s a good one to file for the future. San Patricio county has gone nuts over the past couple of years. My wife went through several rounds of online negotiations before we went in for a formal protest. They really wanted us to settle online to avoid a in office meeting.


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[TransPecos]

Reached a final agreement today at $450K. Getting my $450 arbitration fee returned. When we reached the deal, they said, “I guess we will see you next year.”
Yup.

[Burnadell]

Congratulations on the beat down!!! You hung tough!

[db@100]

Can you use the "over 65 exemption"?