Special to the Journal
“The 2024 Notice of Appraised Value has been delivered to property owners across Bell County during the month of April and property owners who wish to file an appeal that disputes the assessed market value on the Notice need to complete a Notice of Protest within 30 days or within the deadline contained on their statement,” stated State Representative Hugh D. Shine.
Property owners will see the date of their notice and the protest filing deadline printed in red indicating a protest request deadline. Protests must be submitted on or before the protest filing deadline.
“When completing the notice of protest, property owners need to request the appraisal district’s evidence that was used to determine their valuation. The appraisal district is required to provide evidence 14 days prior to the property owner’s appointment,” Shine said.
“Notices of appraised value are not tax statements, but notices of the appraisal district’s property valuation that will be used for taxing entities to apply their adopted tax rate later this year when local governments (units) determine their respective tax rate,” stated Shine.
The Texas Legislature made significant changes to the property tax code this past Legislative Session that applies to homesteads and non-homestead properties.
Homesteads received a $100,000 exemption and non-homestead properties valued at $5 million or less received an appraisal cap of 20%. Both the increased homestead exemption and non-homestead appraisal cap were retroactive for 2023 and are applied for the 2024 tax year.
“There is a paragraph on the statement that is also misleading for homestead owners,” said Shine.
“The statement ‘On Homestead Properties, the assessed value increases of 10% per year are mandatory per Texas Property Tax Code 23.23 until the assessed value is equal to the market value’. This mandatory statement language appears intended to intimidate homeowners into not protesting their property value because it is useless and will not make a difference,” Shine stated.
“Nowhere in Section 25.19 of the Texas Property Tax Code entitled ‘Notice of Appraised Value’, is the mandatory language authorized or required,” said Shine.
“My office is in the process of contacting the Appraisal District to issue a supplemental notice informing homeowners that the statement included in the 2024 notices was in error and that homeowners should disregard the statement,” Shine said.
Representative Shine is a senior member of the Texas House of Representative’s Ways and Means Committee and a co-author of property tax legislation that has impacted Texas’ Property Tax Code.
