How to protest property tax in Travis County, TX
Property tax in Austin is high, and appraisal districts tend to put a high value on a house. So they are making people work for them!
How can we reduce appraisal value and thus reduce property tax?
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Search your property on Property Search, know your neighbors appraised values
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Before May 1st each year, the county will send you a mail with the property PIN on it.
Here you have two choices,- Ask protest companies to fight for you; the cost is 40-50% of reduced property tax. If I got $1000 off from property tax this year, I have to pay $500.
- Do it yourself (continue reading).
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File Protest
- Go to here, click
E-File
- Register an account, and add a property; it may ask you for the property PIN.
- Click
Protest
on the left panel; select' Protest Property from the drop-down box on the right side. - Fill in info, upload settlement doc, inspection report (if any), seller disclosure (10 year old roof), any doc you think can prove your house is not worth that much
- Take some pictures of your houses that need fixing or improvement, and upload them here
- Research your neighbors' appraised values whose property is marked as
Certified (right top corner)
on Property Search
- Go to here, click
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Informal Meeting
- After the e-file, you can schedule an informal meeting on the right side button
- They will call you, review the evidence, and see if they accept your proposal.
- If both cannot settle, reject and wait for the Formal Appraisal Meeting
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ARB hearings (Formal Meeting)
- Wait for an email from noreply@trueprodigy.net, with content like this
A formal Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing has been scheduled for 2022-xx-xx 08:00 AM
- Go to (ARB)[https://traviscad.org/arbhearings], click Instructions are available for property owners that wish to take advantage of remote screen sharing during a telephone hearing.
- Note down the phone number from PDF, setup desk sharing if needed.
- Wait until that date, call the number 15 mins before the meeting starts, and enter your property ID.
- Wait for someone connected, follow instructions, and share your opinions on why you want such appraised value.
- Wait for an email from noreply@trueprodigy.net, with content like this
Above is what I went through; not an easy but a good experience. We have to have our voice heard, so gov make good use of tax, not waste it.