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Beware of Protest Filing DeadlinesThe deadline for filing a protest of the appraised value of property in the State of Texas is May 31 - MAYBE. Then again, maybe it's not. While the normal deadline for a value protest is "before June 1", Section 41.44 of the Tax Code actually provides for the possibility of a later deadline. Property owners and tax consultants should be aware of the applicable filing deadline to avoid waiver of correction rights. RECENT CASELAWAmerican Housing Foundation v. Brazos County Appraisal District The actual owner of low-income housing property must itself be a community housing development organization in order to qualify for a CHoDO exemption under the Tax Code. Subsidiaries and affiliates may not use the parent organization's CHoDO status to qualify. Dan's Big & Tall Shop, Inc. v. County of Dallas The Tax Code requires a purchaser of a business to withhold from the purchase price an amount sufficient to pay property taxes assessed on the property during the year of purchase. If the purchaser fails to withhold the taxes from purchase price, then he is personally liable for the entire assessment (up to the purchase price amount) during the year of purchase even though he does not own the business as of January 1. Silverio Zuniga v. Navarro & Associates, P.C. A private attorney representing a taxing unit in ad valorem tax matters would only be entitled a defense of governmental or sovereign immunity against a lawsuit if she proves that she was an agent or employee of the governmental taxing unit and had acted in good faith in the matter forming the basis of the lawsuit. ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINIONGA-0317 - Attorney General says overlapping jurisdiction statute constitutional Section 6.025(d) of the Tax Code requires chief appraisers of overlapping appraisal districts to enter into the districts' appraisal records the lowest appraised and market values from all values determined by each appraisal district. The Dallas Central Appraisal District claimed that the statute violates various provisions of the Texas Constitution and requested an Attorney General opinion to that effect. The Attorney General ruled that Section 6.025(d) does not as a matter of law violate the Texas Constitution. However, the Attorney General indicated that, in some particular fact situations, a court could determine that a property value required by section 6.025(d) appraises the property at such a value as to cause a taxing unit to levy a tax that is not equal and uniform. The Attorney General pointed out that it would be the burden of the party claiming such inequality (presumably an appraisal district) to prove such facts and inequality. PROPERTY TAX TIPSummary of proposed legislation available The regular session of the Texas Legislature will end on May 30. Legislation proposing changes in the Property Tax Code (as well as other selected tax issues) is summarized on the GPD Property Tax website. GPD will attempt to keep readers informed of the status of those bills during the current legislative session. Read the summary of proposed legislation. Upcoming deadlinesMay 2, 2005 Exemptions with a January 1 qualification date (including freeport) May 2, 2005 May 15, 2005 May 15, 2005 May 31, 2005 May 31, 2005 |
