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Commercial Real Estate

CRE Opinion: What You Need To Know About the New Property Tax Appeal Deadline

May 31st may be burned into your brain, but there's a new date to remember this year.
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Winter May 15th is coming.

It’s May 31st and you’ve been meaning to email your consultant back for two weeks. Did he or she receive your agent form? Is he or she waiting until the last minute to file your appeal? You know all too well that once May 31st is gone, you’re out of luck.

Foy Mitchell Jr.

The date is embedded in the minds of every Texan in the real estate business and most homeowners, as well. In our great state, it’s right up there with April 15th. The Property Tax Appeal Deadline. Well friends, it’s time to get out your eraser.

During the 2017 legislative session, it was argued that Texas’ property tax system created unnecessary taxpayer confusion relating to various property tax functions.

Prior to January 1st, 2018, the deadline date for residential homesteads to file a protest was May 1st, or no later than 30 days after receipt of a Notice of Appraised Value. Other classes of property had a deadline of before June 1st (i.e May 31st) or 30 days after receipt of the aforementioned notice. Different types of property, under certain circumstances, were given different deadlines—confusing, right?

H.B. 2228, which amended Section 41.44 of the Tax Code, sought to streamline the property tax process by changing deadlines for taking certain actions within that process. Among the changing deadlines, perhaps the most significant adjustment deals with filing a protest.

Changes to the law require all types of property to comply with the current deadline of May 15th.

Appraisal districts are changing their schedules to deliver notices earlier and avoid pushing the deadline for appeals past the new May 15th deadline. For example, let’s say that Dallas Central Appraisal District (DCAD) does not deliver the required notices until April 20th. The taxpayer would then have until May 21st to file a protest. As such, you should expect to receive all required notices on or around April 15th.

Justin Goertz

The adoption of May 15th, or 30 days after the receipt of a Notice of Appraised Value (whichever is later), was a compromise to eliminate confusion on the part of all taxpayers. Homeowners get a little more time to consider action, while other classes of property get a little less time.

Having one firm date (May 15th) for filing protests will work toward making the system more efficient for all of us, and schedules should be adjusted accordingly and without delay.

It’s nearly midnight on April 15th. You are carefully navigating your way through a tangle of fellow procrastinators on your way to the post office. You cruise up to the big blue mailbox and toss your income tax return, ninja-style into its seemingly smirking mouth. You’re in! But be sure to check your own mailbox on the way home, as your new assessment notice may well be waiting for you. And, in one short month, a new deadline of May 15th approaches.

Foy Mitchell is vice president and Justin Goertz is a senior account relationship executive at Marvin F. Poer and Co., a full-service property tax consulting firm.

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