Most things are bigger in Texas, but your property tax bill doesn’t have to be.
No doubt, tax authorities in Texas are at times overzealous in their valuations on which property taxes are computed. The head of property taxes for a Fortune 500 client once quipped: “If the taxing authority is correct that my house is a castle, why don’t my kids treat me like a king?” Whether it’s your residence, your company’s headquarters building, an industrial facility, or any other real or tangible personal property, appraisals that are either inflated or on which reasonable minds may differ are commonplace.
There typically is not a single, clear-cut value that should be assigned to any particular piece of property. Expert appraisers frequently disagree about a property’s proper valuation. So do taxpayers and the tax authorities who rely on the experts. This is similar to sparring views on valuation that taxpayers encounter in the fields of estate taxes and transfer pricing. In the ad valorem tax domain, reasonable minds may also differ as to the application of exemptions and other issues that impact the amount of property taxes that are rightfully due.
Fortunately, there is a robust process in Texas to contest your property taxes. For many companies, annual challenges to their property tax assessments has become part of their regular course of doing business in Texas.