Property Tax Justice

"10% Cap" Saves the Day

Texas homeowner's owe a great debt to the Texas Legislature of 1997. The lawmakers' collective wisdom placed an extremely valuable constitutional amendment on the fall ballot. Voters then had the good sense to approve it overwhelmingly.

The "10% cap" on homesteaded property limits annual increases in taxable value to a ten percent (10%) maximum. Taxpayers in Travis and Williamson counties are about to find out firsthand how important this limitation is to homeowners.

Basically, the "10% cap" means the taxable value of your homestead can only increase 10% from one year to the next. The market value assigned to your home can increase up to whatever the tax appraisers' feel is the most likely selling price, but the value on which you actually pay taxes is limited by the "10% cap."

In Austin, this may be all that is keeping some folks in their homes.

Most homeowners feel they could sell their home for more than the current tax appraisal, sometimes a great deal more. But Travis CAD and Williamson CAD are going to catch up ... they have to.

Consider this soon-to-be-typical scenario for a Westlake or West Enfield or Tarrytown home:

Watch out for building permits

Filing for a building permit on your home will automatically alert Travis CAD that improvements have been made to the property. They are required to add the value of these improvements to the previous year's "10% cap" value.

In fact, what happens is that Travis CAD will remove your 10% cap limitation for the next year!

You will still have a homestead exemption in place, but the taxable value of your home now increases up to near the market value. Thus, as in the example above, you could instantly face a 60% property tax increase.

The only notification you will receive alerting you to this horrible situation will be the "Notice of Value" sent in mid-April by Travis CAD.

Best Bet: Don't wait until you get the tax bill to fix the problem. It will be a nightmare when your mortgage company receives the tax bill in October and notifies you of a dramatic shortfall.

Cure: You must very carefully check the "Notice of Appraised Value" received in mid-April.

Check the right-hand column under the box reading "PROPOSED THIS YEAR 2000", it should be headed "TOTAL APPRAISED VALUE". Compare this value to the one shown in the column headed "TOTAL APPRAISED VALUE" under the box reading "LAST YEAR 1999" on the left-hand side of the form.

These two numbers need to be within 10% of each other, or something is probably wrong. The market value shown for the two years may be much different, but the taxable values should be close.

If you suspect a problem, call Travis CAD at 834-9317 immediately, have your parcel number ready, and ask the Taxpayer Information representative to verify that your "10% cap" is in place for tax year 2000.

A missing "10% cap" could easily cost thousands of dollars, don't let it happen to you.

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