It’s likely that the old saying “the only things that are inevitable in life are death and taxes” irritates some Texas property taxpayers who feel they’re being asked to pay too much.
Dave Lieber, the watchdog columnist at the Dallas Morning News, says the way property taxes are levied in Texas isn’t fair. He has written about what he says is a “radical, crazy plan“ to make that point.
“What I’m saying to folks is – everybody should file a protest,” Lieber says, “no matter whether your taxes went up, stayed the same, or went down. I think we should just flood the appraisal districts with protests.”
Lieber says the goal is to get appraisers to give all taxpayers a lower assessment since the districts have only 35 days to resolve protests from taxpayers before they must report final numbers to the local government.
“The more protests there are, the more likely they are to do what I call ‘wave the magic wand’ and give people a lower value,” Lieber says.
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– Why taxpayers should flood their appraisal districts with protests
– Why tax appraisals are often inaccurate
– Whether it is ethical to protest property taxes
– Why the rate of property tax growth accelerates so quickly
– How a taxpayer can file a protest
Written by Shelly Brisbin.
