I think I've got this tax thing figured out - am I right?

[hal512]

Travis County tried to raise our property taxes by 15-18% every year even though we had the homestead exemp. The funny thing was in our neighborhood they would do every other house one year and the next all the even #'s very odd. Anyway we protested and the first two years we had no increase with a 5% increase for the next three years and then a 5% reduction but they raised our land value by 20%. So just watch they are sneaky but protesting works.

[Skeptical]

Hal512, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. There are two basic components that determine how much your property tax is and how much it might increase each year. These are the valuation of your property and the tax rate or percentage.

My understanding is that you can reduce the valuation by $15,000 on your property with the homestead exemption and another $10,000 if you are over 65. I also understand that your property valuation cannot be increased once you turn 65 as long as you keep the house and are living in it.

The tax rate or percentage is unaffected by age or the homestead exemption. My understanding is that it can change from year to year no matter how old you are.

The part I don't understand is the 10% limit on yearly increases. Is this a limit on the increase in percentage or increase in property value?

Skeptical

[Houston3]

Originally Posted by Taterhead

It's bargain until you want to retire in Texas. I just read on another post that many Texans that have lived there for 20-30 years will not retire there because the can't afford the property tax on their home when they are retired.

Debbie

That's funny, I'm retired in Texas and my taxes were cut in half when I retired..You just have to apply for it when you turn 65...And the taxes are frozen at the discounted rate when I retired..

[Taterhead]

Originally Posted by Houston3

That's funny, I'm retired in Texas and my taxes were cut in half when I retired..You just have to apply for it when you turn 65...And the taxes are frozen at the discounted rate when I retired..

Perhaps you could help me understand how that happened? The only things that changes when you turn 65 is, you property value is frozen (which would not reduce your current taxes) and you get an additional $10,000 reduction on the valuation of your property. I'm not sure how that adds up to half...

Debbie

[loves2read]

that property in Westlake probable has an ag exemption to reduce taxes...and so might love roses's grandmother...

if you look at the Tarrant Appraisal District site which is for tarrant county appraisal district you can check out properties and see what their taxing authorities are and how they are valued

this one is a 3 acre lot in a very upscale development -- Vaquero --in Westlake
notice how the valuation of the land has increased over the past years...there are 5 public entities that tax and receive monies from that lot...
Real Estate Data Display

this is a smaller half/acre lot and the value of it has not increased in 3-4 years
Real Estate Data Display
don't live in Westlake but don't understand that

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by Skeptical

The part I don't understand is the 10% limit on yearly increases. Is this a limit on the increase in percentage or increase in property value?

It's a limit on the property value. See: T A X R E M E D Y . C O M (http://www.taxremedy.com/1-512-476-2277/documents/homestead-detail.html - broken link)

So the rate can still go up by more than 10%, but usually one or the other will go up at a time. Because if property values go up, the $$$ that comes in to the taxing entities go up at the same rate. So they sometimes even lower the rate, as many did this past year. And if property values go down, they usually up the rate so they have at least the same amount of money coming in as the previous year.

Because of the above situation, the state made some rules understanding that a property owners "effective" tax rate (how much actual $$$ they pay) can be manipulated either via property values or rate adjustments.. so, they made a series of rules designed to prevent that from happening without the taxing districts having to publicly notify everyone... and in some cases, forcing a vote to a "rollback" rate:

Truth-In-Taxation - 2008 - Introduction

[y200]

For me the thing is to live where you want to live and not to worry about it. They get you one way or another - somehow the local stuff has to be paid for too. For the sake of a couple of percent in your total income then it's better to live where you want to.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by loves2read

that property in Westlake probable has an ag exemption to reduce taxes...and so might love roses's grandmother...

if you look at the Tarrant Appraisal District site which is for tarrant county appraisal district you can check out properties and see what their taxing authorities are and how they are valued

I think tibbar might have been referring to Westlake in Austin, TX. In which case the property definitely does not have an ag exemption, otherwise the taxes would have been much lower. Westlake area tax rates are around 2% depending on the subdivision (see Travis Central Appraisal District - Appraisal Roll Information). So it should be more like:

1,906,329.00 (taxable value) *.02 = $38126

But perhaps the $45K figure was from last year, when rates were a bit higher.