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Chief Appraisers Will Send Notices
of Appraised Value in Letter Form
County appraisal districts (CADs) will change the look of their notices of appraised value for tax year 2000. Senate Bill (SB) 694 requires chief appraisers to deliver written notices to property owners in the form of a letter. The bill also changes some Property Tax Code Section 25.19 content for these letters from previous years' notices.

Changes by SB 694 are the most in the 18-year history of Section 25.19 notices. The notices had minor changes in previous years, including the 1989 change to allow chief appraisers to send a notice with less information to some property owners. Many CADs have used computer-generated forms or pull-apart notices in preceding years.

To help CADs meet new requirements of Section 25.19, the Comptroller's Property Tax Division (PTD) provides the following sample letter. The PTD sample is not a required letter but is offered to assist CADs.

Letter in the mail
mailbox graph SB 694 amended Section 25.19 to require chief appraisers to deliver a "clear and understandable written notice" to property owners of their properties' appraised value for the current year. "Clear and understandable" language would be the simplest language possible, given complex property tax terms. Brief and "to the point," while avoiding unnecessary jargon, results in an understandable letter.

Amended Section 25.19(h) requires the notice to be in the form of a letter. While "form of a letter" is not defined, PTD recommends that the notice have the typical elements of a letter and be printed on CAD letterhead. Typical elements of a letter include:

  • date line;
  • inside address;
  • salutation;
  • body or message;
  • complimentary close;
  • signature block; and
  • enclosure notation.

SB 694 deleted the requirement in Section 25.19(d) that certain information be printed in a rectangle with dimensions of not less than 15 square inches. SB 694 also deleted the requirement that certain information be bold-faced type distinct from and located above other information enclosed in the rectangle.

The PTD's sample letter includes the above elements. Choice of font, type size, and margins will determine if a CAD's letter is one or two pages long. The PTD's sample is printed on one page for illustration in STATEMENT, but a CAD may find that a two-page letter gives better readability and room necessary for adding required information.

Information deleted
Besides changing the notice's format, SB 694 also deleted two items of information previously required by Section 25.19.

The repealed items that will not be in the new letter include:

  • a statement that the governing body of the unit may not adopt a rate that will increase tax revenues above tax revenues for the preceding year without publishing notice in a newspaper that it is considering a tax increase and holding a hearing for taxpayers to discuss the tax increase, and
  • a brief explanation that a taxpayer who objects to increasing taxes and government expenditures should complain to the governing bodies of the taxing units and only complaints about value should be presented to the appraisal office and the appraisal review board.
Information changed
SB 694 changed another item of information required by Section 25.19. Beginning with tax year 2000, the estimated taxes imposed on a property based on the proposed current year's taxable value will use each taxing unit's tax rate adopted for the preceding tax year.

Before SB 694, this section had required CADs to use an effective tax rate, calculated by the chief appraiser using total values being submitted to the appraisal review board (ARB). Chief appraisers had to include an explanation that the rate would raise the same amount of revenue from property taxed in both the preceding and current tax years.

Again, CADs will use adopted 1999 tax rates for each taxing unit for the tax year 2000 notices. Chief appraisers will not have to calculate effective tax rates for these units.

Information required
With these deletions and changes, it may be helpful to review what Section 25.19 requires on the notices of appraised value for a property. Notices of appraised value must contain the following items, separate for real and personal property:

  • a list of taxing units which tax the property;
  • property's appraised value in the preceding year;
  • property's taxable value in the preceding year for each taxing unit;
  • property's appraised value in the current year;
  • kind and amount of each partial exemption for the current year;
  • estimated taxes for the current year using the preceding year's tax rate for each unit, if the current year's appraised value is greater than the preceding year's value;
  • sentences in italics: The Texas Legislature does not set the amount of your local taxes. Your property tax burden is decided by your locally elected officials, and all inquiries concerning your taxes should be directed to those officials.
  • detailed explanation of time and procedure for protesting the value;
  • date and place the ARB will begin hearing protests; and
  • brief explanation that "the governing body of each taxing unit decides whether or not taxes on the property will increase and the appraisal district only determines the value of the property."

For property receiving special appraisal, such as agricultural or timber value, the appraised value in the current year includes both the land's market value and the land's productivity value.

Homeowners with an appraisal limitation on their homes as provided by Property Tax Code Section 23.23 have two items of information: the total appraised value with the homestead limitation and the total market value of the property (without the limitation).

While the estimated taxes are required only when the current year's appraised value exceeds last year's value, the CAD may wish to include the estimated taxes in other circumstances, such as when a property's value remains the same or decreases.

When to send
Chief appraisers are required to send notices of appraised value to property owners in three circumstances:
  1. property's appraised value is greater than the preceding year;
  2. property's appraised value is greater than rendered by property owner; or
  3. property was not on the appraisal roll in the preceding year.

With approval of the CAD board of directors, the chief appraiser may dispense with the notice in number 1 above if the amount of appraised value increase is $1,000 or less.

Chief appraisers send notices of appraised value by May 15 or as soon thereafter as practicable.

"Short" letter
SB 694 amendments also renumbered Subsection (i) to (g). That subsection, originally added by 1989 legislative changes, provides that the chief appraiser deliver a notice of appraised value in three other circumstances. This notice, however, has fewer required items of information than the "longer" notice.

SB 694 requires chief appraisers to send this "short" notice in letter form. The chief appraiser sends the "shorter" letter in the following cases:

  1. if the property was reappraised in the current tax year;
  2. if the property's ownership changed from the preceding year; or
  3. if the property owner or agent makes a written request for the notice.
In the first instance, if the property was reappraised and the value increased (or increased by more than $1,000, depending on CAD policy), the property owner receives the longer letter.

This "short" letter includes the following information, separate for real and personal property:

  • property's appraised value in the preceding year;
  • property's appraised value in the current year;
  • kind and amount of each partial exemption for the current year;
  • detailed explanation of time and procedure for protesting the value; and
  • date and place the ARB will begin hearing protests.

CADs may use PTD's sample letter to develop this "shorter" letter by deleting the items not required. Many CADs choose to send the longer notice to property owners, so that all property owners will have the same type of information.

Enclosures
Chief appraisers should not forget that these letters require three items to accompany them.

First, each letter must include either a copy of the Comptroller's pamphlet on taxpayer remedies or a copy of the newspaper ad that the chief appraiser publishes on how to protest property values. The Comptroller's PTD has two pamphlets on taxpayer remedies -- the 8-page version of Texas Property Taxes: Taxpayers' Rights, Remedies & Responsibilities that gives information on all aspects of property taxes and the 2-page version of Texas Property Taxpayers' Remedies that addresses protesting property values.

Second, the letter must include a notice of protest form prescribed by the Comptroller. The Property Tax Notice of Protest form is Comptroller Form No. 50-132.

Third, the letter must include instructions for completing and mailing the form to the ARB and requesting a hearing on the protest.

More information
For more information about the new requirements for notices of appraised value, contact the PTD's technical assistance section at 1-800-252-9121 or e-mail questions to ptd.cpa@cpa.state.tx.us. In Austin, call 305-9999.