How You and Your Neighbors Can Lower Your Property Tax

The Watchdog has a plan to lower your 2017 property taxes.My plan is perfectly legal, but it will shake up the unfair tax system, bring awareness to the property tax crisis, and most important, likely lower your taxes with what I believe will be minimal effort on your part.The name of The Watchdog's plan is "Everybody File a Protest."In part one of this series, I revealed my 2017 strategy for all citizens of Watchdog Nation. We stand up for our rights to the full extent of the law and look for strategies that give us an advantage where usually we'd be at a disadvantage.My plan is to convince as many property owners as possible to file a property tax protest before the May 31 deadline. Overload the system like never before, and in return, appraisers would have to settle cases in greater numbers than ever to clear their calendar by the state's July deadline.The system is set up so that all protests must be resolved by around July 20 (or late August if a large county appraisal district seeks an extension).That doesn't leave much time for any district to handle thousands of protest hearings. So what happens then?To make deadline, county appraisers usually mass settle cases informally without a hearing, often with an office chat over the counter or by phone or email.I call it "waving a wand." No hearing. No time for that. Only a quick settlement offer. Missed deadlines cause major headaches for local governments waiting to hear how much tax money they will reap as they prepare next year's budgets.Your right to protest"Everybody File a Protest" is permitted under Texas law. There's no punishment for those who protest. Nobody is going to get angry with you. (They might at me for this, but oh well.)  Continue reading...