Below are the questions we most frequently receive from clients.
A property tax protest is an opportunity to demonstrate to the Appraisal District that your property’s assigned value or classification is inaccurate. Protests should provide evidence to support your position. Your protest directly affects what you pay the assessor every year. A reduction keeps money in your pocket when tax payments come due the following year.
We usually have results within six to eight weeks after the filing deadline. Some results will be earlier and some later, depending on a number of external factors including the current environment and the number of protests filed.
No, however, if you as a homeowner never protest your property valuation, you deprive yourself of the opportunity to have a say in what your property is valued at, leaving you to live with whatever value the Appraisal District gives you.
We provide property tax reduction services to residential homeowners and individual investors in exchange for a fee of $250 per tax year (per property). If you decline the reduction offered by the Appraisal District and choose to pursue a hearing before the Appraisal Board, there will be an additional $500 charge to represent you.
The Constitution of the State of Texas prohibits discriminatory practices in assessing taxes. For example, suppose your recently purchased property is assessed at its purchase price but others in the subdivision are not affected. You may be appraised unequally, even at market value.
If your Proposed Property Tax Valuation is above the median level of other similar properties in the Appraisal District you may qualify for a reduction based on Inequality of Appraisal (comparable assessments). Successful protests under Inequality of Appraisal can result in taxable values below market value. Your value could be reduced below the price you recently paid for the property. The Appraisal District has the burden of establishing that the appraisal ratio of your property is not greater than the median level of appraisal of (1) a sample of other properties in the Appraisal District, or (2) a sample of similarly situated properties of the same general kind or character as yours or (3) a sample of comparables appropriately adjusted to resemble yours. If the Appraisal District can’t meet that burden then your value will be reduced to below market.
Protesting your property tax valuation is critical to lowering your property taxes in the future. If you don’t protest each year’s proposed increase in property tax valuation because it’s not affecting you currently, your taxable increases could continue indefinitely. As the property tax valuation continues to increase each year, there might be no end in sight to your annual property tax increases. But if you protest with ProtestPRAD.com, you exercise control over your future taxes.
This is highly unlikely due to the volume of protests that counties receive every year. While this is in their purview, in our experience they do not visit properties just because a protest was filed.
We recommend you protest your property tax valuation every year, whether the Appraisal District increases it or not. This maximizes your chances of a reduction and subsequent tax savings even when your taxable value remains unchanged.
In the next tax year in which the property is appraised (following a successful protest), the Chief Appraiser may not increase the appraised value of the property unless the increase by the Chief Appraiser is reasonably supported by clear and convincing evidence when all of the reliable and probative evidence in the record is considered as a whole. The burden of proof is on the Chief Appraiser to support an increase in the appraised value of the property under the circumstances described by this subsection.
No, however, there is a good chance that your savings will likely benefit you for multiple years. Even if your property tax valuation does increase in subsequent years, any increase will come from a lower base after a successful protest this year. Your savings will likely continue beyond this year.
Yes, but the deferred taxes will accrue interest at 8% per annum and will constitute a lien against the property payable when it is sold or passes into probate.
If your question wasn’t addressed, please reach out to us.