Texas Property Taxpayers' Rights, Remedies, Responsibilities

Five Constitutional Rules


The Texas Constitution sets out five rules for the property tax.

1. Taxation must be equal and uniform. All property must be valued and taxed equally and uniformly. This applies to similar types of property (for example, all residential homes) and to differing types of property (for example, commercial properties and utility properties). No single property or type of properties should pay more than its fair share of taxes.

2. With some exceptions, all tangible property must be taxed on its current market value. The exceptions include agricultural land and timberland. A property's market value is the price for which it would sell when both buyer and seller want the best price and neither one is under pressure to buy or sell. Land used for farming and ranching can be valued on its capacity to produce crops or livestock, instead of its value on the real estate market. This appraisal is known as agricultural appraisal. Special timberland appraisal is also available to property owners whose land produces timber for products.

3. All property is taxable unless a federal or state law provides an exemption for it. An exemption excludes all or part of a property's value from taxation.

4. Property owners have a right to reasonable notice of increases in appraised property value.

5. Each property in a county must have one appraised value. The Legislature may provide for exceptions for a property that is part of a governmental unit, such as a school district, whose boundaries cross county lines.

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/tx96_295/basics.html

Homeowner age 65 or older, you may defer or postpone paying any delinquent property taxes on your home. How ?

If you are a homeowner age 65 or older, you may defer or postpone paying any delinquent property taxes on your home for as long as you own and live in it. To postpone your tax payments, file a tax deferral affidavit with your appraisal district. You may suspend any lawsuit by filing an affidavit with the court. The deferral is for all delinquent property taxes of the taxing units that tax your home.

A tax deferral only postpones paying your taxes. It doesn't cancel them. Interest is added at the rate of 8 percent a year. Once you no longer own your home or live in it, past taxes and interest become due. Any penalty and interest that was due on the tax bill for the home before the tax deferral will remain on the property and also become due when the tax deferral ends.

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/tx96_295/home.html

Harris County tax values fall for first time in decades

Property values in Harris County continue to fall and taking with them hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. That may mean you'll end up paying more in taxes elsewhere.

For the first time in two decades the taxable values in Harris County are going down. For homeowners it means your property value will either stay the same or go down But for cities and schools it means millions of fewer tax dollars at a time when budgets are already tight.

Property values across Harris County are down four percent overall. That seems like a small number, but it could have a huge impact on cities and possibly you the taxpayer, because taxing entities will collect about $350 million less this year. To make up for the shortfall, taxing entities could end up raising your taxes in order to pay their bills.


http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/consumer&id=7363099

Houston home sales, prices down again

Houston-area home sales fell 16 percent in March and prices dropped 4 percent, according to the latest figures from the Houston Association of Realtors.

Realtors sold 4,355 single-family homes last month through the Multiple Listing Service. Most of the homes were existing, but some were new.

The decline marked the 19th consecutive drop in area sales, but the pace eased slightly from January and February, when home sales fell more than 20 percent each month.

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New Website Launching www.cutmyhcadtaxes.com

Happy to Inform all Houstonians and Fortbend County residents the launching of web site www.cutmyhcadtaxes.com Now you can manage your account and upload documents and pictures every thing online to make your tax protest easy.

We listened you and we started the first web based property tax reduction website for your convenience. Now you can send email to us by logging on to our system and even you can check the status of your protest online.

Cutmyhcadtaxes.com

Propertytax911.com

PO Box 1529
Alief TX 77411