How to lower your property taxes
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Most North Texans have about a month now to decide if they want to push back against the sharpest one-year rise in property values appraisers say they've ever seen.
Values that help determine property tax bills later this year, are up 20 to 30% across the region over 2021. Faced with that, experts say achieving a decrease may be more difficult this year, but it doesn't hurt to try.
Exemptions
One of the easiest places to start is to make sure you're receiving exemptions that lower the overall dollar figure your taxes are based on. If the property is your homestead, the primary places you live, it knocks $25,000 off the number school districts base their taxes on. Cities and counties can also offer homestead exemptions. Owners who are over 65 or disabled, as well as disabled veterans can also check off exemptions.
You can apply for a homestead exemption at any time, and retroactively apply it for up to two years if you missed it in the past.
Online protests
Owners can go online to their county appraisal district, log in and usually see what nearby properties and sales were used to determine their home's value. Some will allow you to offer up an alternative value and get an instant answer.
You may want to add more evidence to your argument though and can do that in the same place.
Upload pictures of the hail damage to your home; the kitchen that hasn't been remodeled since the house was built; repair estimates for major issues.
Anything that will show your home to potentially be valued less than others its being compared to, can be useful.
Informal visits
If you'd rather share all that with a real person, that's an option too. Depending where you live, appraisal staff will usually correspond through email, over the phone, or at the office in-person.
Bring all the same evidence, and they may be able to come to an agreement with you on a lower value.
New buyers or those who refinanced in the last year can often use this option, using closing documents as evidence of a lower value than what an appraisal district has proposed.
Formal protest hearing
If none of the above achieves a value you can live with, then you can schedule a formal protest hearing in front of a panel. These are open to the public so you can observe how they work before you go in for your own.
Ask for all the appraisal districts evidence ahead of time so you know what they will present. Then you can present yours, using pictures, videos, repair estimates; always using facts experts say, not emotions to make your case.
