Monday, May 21, 2007
For IMMEDIATE Release

ARB To Begin Property Owner Protest Hearings on June 4, 2007

Property owners in the San Jacinto County Appraisal District will have an opportunity next month to protest proposed appraisals of their property for local taxes. The district's appraisal review board (ARB) will begin hearing taxpayer protests on June 4, 2007.

After the ARB completes its hearings and approves final property appraisals, local governments will use these appraisals to set 2007 tax rates.

The ARB is a group of citizens who live in the appraisal district and are appointed by the district's board of directors. Their responsibilities and qualifications are outlined in the Texas Property Tax Code.

Property owners may protest to the ARB any of the following appraisal office actions:

- the appraised or market value of the property;

- unequal appraisal of the taxpayer's property compared to similar property in the district;

- inclusion of the property on the appraisal records;

- denial of a partial exemption, such as a homestead exemption;

- denial of special appraisals, such as agricultural or timber productivity appraisal;

- determination that agricultural or timber land has had a change of use and is subject to a rollback tax;

- identification of the taxing unit or units in which the property is located;

- determination that the taxpayer is the owner of the property; or

- any other action of the appraisal office that adversely affects the owner.

Clayton Adams, chief appraiser for the district, outlined the steps a property owner must take to file a protest. First, the property owner must file a written notice of protest that shows why the owner is protesting to the ARB. The taxpayer must file this notice by June 20 or within 30 days after the appraisal district mails the taxpayer a notice of appraised value, whichever is later. Property owners working offshore in the Gulf of Mexico or serving in the military out of the country on the protest deadline date, may file a protest before the delinquency date.

If a person leases property and, by contract, must pay the owner’s property taxes, then the person leasing may protest the property’s value to the ARB, if the property owner doesn’t protest.

If the ARB sends a property owner a notice of any other kind of change in the appraisal records, or if the chief appraiser issues a notice for a property omitted in the prior year, the property owner has 30 days from the mailing date to file a protest.

Official forms for a notice of protest were included with appraisal letters to property owners and also are available at the appraisal district office. "A protest letter from the taxpayer is also acceptable," Adams said, "as long as it identifies the property owner and the property protested and indicates dissatisfaction with some decision or action of the appraisal office."

Each protesting property owner may offer evidence or argument, either in person or by filing a sworn affidavit with the ARB. A property owner may appoint another person to present the protest by filing an Appointment of Agent form with the appraisal district. Property owners should know that the ARB has no authority over tax rates or spending and will not hear protests on these topics.

The ARB will schedule hearings as property owners file protests and mail them a notice of the time, date and place of their individual hearings at least 15 days before the hearing date. The 15 days start with the date postmarked on the notice. Property owners also will receive a copy of the Texas Comptroller of Public Account's pamphlet called Texas Property Taxes: Taxpayers' Rights, Remedies and Responsibilities, a copy of the ARB's hearing procedures and notice that any evidence that the appraisal district will present at the hearing is available at the appraisal office.

Adams said that hearings will be held for several weeks and that the ARB expects to approve the final appraisal roll no later than July 20. State law requires the ARB to review and approve the appraisal records by July 20, or when not more than 5 percent of the total property value in the district remains under protest.

Those protesting their appraisals should not contact ARB members outside the hearing, the chief appraiser stressed. Each ARB member must sign an affidavit that he or she has had no contact about the protest with a property owner or the appraisal office staff before the hearing.

Texas Property Taxes: Taxpayers' Rights, Remedies and Responsibilities is available at the San Jacinto County Appraisal District office. For a copy, visit the appraisal district at 99 Slade Street in Coldspring. Or, call the Texas Comptroller’s office at 1-800-252-9121 or see on the Web at www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/index.html.