Friday, April 29, 2016

Congratulations on your new investment home

What a great time to invest in homes in Dallas/Fort Worth. Rents are on the increase and interest rates are very low. Congratulations to Milan and Palak to their investment home. If you would like to invest in real estate give me a call.

Friday, April 15, 2016

File Your Homestead Exemption

Property tax in Texas is a locally assessed and locally administered tax. There is no state property tax.  Texas offers a variety of partial or total (absolute) exemptions from appraised property values used to determine local property taxes. A partial exemption removes a percentage or a fixed dollar amount of a property’s value from taxation. A total (absolute) exemption excludes the entire property from taxation. Taxing units are mandated by the state to offer certain (mandatory) exemptions and have the option to decide locally on whether or not to offer others (local option).

Exemptions from property tax require applications in most circumstances. Applications for property tax exemptions are filed with appraisal districts. The general deadline for filing an exemption application is before May 1, in other words, by April 30.

Tax Code Section 11.13(b) requires school districts to offer a $25,000 exemption on residence homesteads and Tax Code Section 11.13(n) allows any taxing unit the option to decide locally to offer a separate residence homestead exemption of up to 20 percent of a property’s appraised value. The local option exemption cannot be less than $5,000. Tax Code Section 11.13(a) requires counties that collect farm-to-market or flood control taxes to offer a $3,000 residence homestead exemption.

There are no specific qualifications for the general homestead exemption other than the owner has an ownership interest in the property and uses the property as the owner’s principal residence. An applicant is required to state that he or she does not claim an exemption on another residence homestead in or outside of Texas.

Tax Code exemption requirements are extensive. Property owners should read applicable statutes carefully. Below are the relevant websites and/or homestead applications.

Dallas County

http://www.dallascad.org/News.aspx?ID=11

Collin County

http://www.collincad.org/downloads/finish/13-residential-exemptions/54-residential-homestead-exemption-application

Denton County

https://www.dentoncad.com/docs/forms/2016/50-114.pdf

Tarrant County

http://www.tad.org/templates/TAD/pdf/homestead_exemption_request_2016.pdf

Source: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts; Texas Tax Code Section 11.13