When will the State of Texas enact some kind of property tax relief? (Round Top: house, transfer)

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by mojo101

Dont expect any relief from Houston,they have borrowed heavily due to flooding and immigrants from central and south America are catholics and they have more children.
which placed a burden on the school system

Houston ISD has the lowest tax rate of all Harris County school districts. And, enrollment has dropped below pre-Covid numbers. HISD also has the largest homestead exemption, adding a 20% exemption to the statutory $40k amount.

If I moved to Tomball, Cy-Fair, Katy, or similar districts to a house with the same value as our current home, our taxes would go up by a couple of thousand dollars for schools alone, plus whatever impact the MUD taxes would have.

[Sugarlandbubba]

Originally Posted by DillyDilly97

I’m surprised it’s not higher than that. In Odessa/Midland area the average home price is now averaging $390k. They are rising rapidly in the Panhandle as well. The property taxes have become ridiculous and so have the utility cost.

The average home prices in Texas for August 22 was around $417K, so it is higher. I used the median of $345K.

https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/data/h...ty/State/Texas

[Dopo]

Property tax relief is only done for farmers
Everybody else that pays property taxes on their house is stuck paying without any relief and basically subsidizing farmers

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Property tax relief is only done for farmers
Everybody else that pays property taxes on their house is stuck paying without any relief and basically subsidizing farmers

The agriculture exemption isn't just for farmers. There are a number of qualifying activities. And we aren't really subsidizing them. The ag exemption is used to allow rural land owners to pay taxes based on the productive value of the land.

A friend of mine owns 530 acres South of Gonzales. The market value of the land is $1 million. The taxes on that without the ag exemption would be about $25,000. That's more then the money he makes off of the cows he has. With the ag exemption, he pays taxes on about $25,000 value, or about $750(in that range, anyway). He also pays taxes on the value of the minerals under the land, but I'm not sure how much that is. It can't be much, since his royalty checks are now a massive $500 per month, down from $12k per month in the early days of production.

The house on the ranch is treated differently. The house and the 2 acres around it are taxed at market value with the homestead exemption, and he's paying full taxes on that $350,000.

I don't have any real issues with the way rural land is taxed.

I've seen complaints that the River Oaks Country Club land is worth $80 million, but paying taxes on $4million, and that's somehow unfair. My guess is that if taxes are raised on recreational land, those open spaces go away and get a bunch of houses built on them. I prefer the open space remain, since it absorbs more water during rainfall, and provides other intangible benefits.

[Sugarlandbubba]

Originally Posted by WRM20

The agriculture exemption isn't just for farmers. There are a number of qualifying activities. And we aren't really subsidizing them. The ag exemption is used to allow rural land owners to pay taxes based on the productive value of the land.

A friend of mine owns 530 acres South of Gonzales. The market value of the land is $1 million. The taxes on that without the ag exemption would be about $25,000. That's more then the money he makes off of the cows he has. With the ag exemption, he pays taxes on about $25,000 value, or about $750(in that range, anyway). He also pays taxes on the value of the minerals under the land, but I'm not sure how much that is. It can't be much, since his royalty checks are now a massive $500 per month, down from $12k per month in the early days of production.

The house on the ranch is treated differently. The house and the 2 acres around it are taxed at market value with the homestead exemption, and he's paying full taxes on that $350,000.

I don't have any real issues with the way rural land is taxed.

I've seen complaints that the River Oaks Country Club land is worth $80 million, but paying taxes on $4million, and that's somehow unfair. My guess is that if taxes are raised on recreational land, those open spaces go away and get a bunch of houses built on them. I prefer the open space remain, since it absorbs more water during rainfall, and provides other intangible benefits.

Is your friend really keeping the cows as a viable business entity or is he doing it in order to obtain an Ag exemption? I believe the Ag exemption needs to be changed to have some kind of business viability since the purpose is to provide foods to the public. I have friends who had some ag exempted acreages in the burbs and they eventually sold it to a developer for a very, very nice profit. The only trap is the roll back taxes, which the developer can negotiate with the county.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Sugarlandbubba

Is your friend really keeping the cows as a viable business entity or is he doing it in order to obtain an Ag exemption? I believe the Ag exemption needs to be changed to have some kind of business viability since the purpose is to provide foods to the public. I have friends who had some ag exempted acreages in the burbs and they eventually sold it to a developer for a very, very nice profit. The only trap is the roll back taxes, which the developer can negotiate with the county.

He keeps the cows to make money and to retain the ag exemption. If he loses the ag exemption, it will cost him over $60k in back taxes.

Your friends must have had some decent sized property. 10 acres is the minimum for ag exemption.

Most counties won't negotiate the valuation for the rollback, especially now that the period has been decreased from 5 years to 3

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Sugarlandbubba

Is your friend really keeping the cows as a viable business entity or is he doing it in order to obtain an Ag exemption? I believe the Ag exemption needs to be changed to have some kind of business viability since the purpose is to provide foods to the public. I have friends who had some ag exempted acreages in the burbs and they eventually sold it to a developer for a very, very nice profit. The only trap is the roll back taxes, which the developer can negotiate with the county.

I used to live by a house with a few acres with miniature donkeys on it
I always wondered what was the deal with that

Well, by doing that, they get an agricultural tax exemption

[Obrienlester]

Originally Posted by supfromthesite

We need to enact a small income tax and lower property taxes.

Hahahahahahahaha

HAHA




HECK NO!!!

[Obrienlester]

Originally Posted by WRM20

If Texas had an income tax, then people whose income dropped would have a lower tax bill than they do now. Of course Dan Patrick and his ilk think that high earning people shouldn't have to pay more taxes because that would reduce the amount available for political donations, so we have a high property tax.

Ya, except for people like me who have alot of dividend assets. Ya, I don't need the State to start taxing my dividend income from the already 15% from the Gov.


NOPE!

[Rakin]

"Let's not take $2 from the People from Property Taxes".

"Let's take $2 from the people for Income taxes".

No thanks. Everyone 100% who lives in TX be they a Home owner, a Land owner, Commercial owner or a Renter pays property taxes. A renter pays it in his rent.

Only maybe 55% of the people pay income taxes. Business's get too many deductions based on Income Taxes. Amazon / Walmart / Kroger / ATT pays a lot of property taxes on those buildings. They would probably pay a whole lot less in Income Tax.

So let's jack up the Income Tax on the 55% who actually pay.

Sounds like CA and NY.