Personal Property Appeals Process

If you wish to appeal the appraised value of your personal property, contact the appraiser’s office by May 15th. If the property owner is going to be represented by someone else at the informal meeting, the property owner must complete and file a “Declaration of Representation” form with the appraiser’s office prior to the date of the meeting.

If you do not appeal the valuation notice, you can still protest the appraised value of your property when you pay all or one-half of your taxes. By law, you cannot appeal both your valuation notice and then protest when you pay your taxes for the same property in the same year.

Payment under protest forms are available at the Treasurer’s Office or through the Payments Under Protest Application. The protest should state the grounds for the protest, including the portion of the assessment protested and any portion admitted to be valid. Once the taxes are paid under protest, the County Treasurer will make a copy of the form and send it to the County Appraiser. Any supporting documentation can be filed with the protest form at the Treasurer’s Office and it will be forwarded to the appraiser with the protest form. Within 15 days of receiving the notice the appraiser will contract the property owner to make an appointment for an informal hearing or conduct the hearing over the phone. It is important to remember that at the informal hearing the appraiser is only looking at the value of the property and not at the amount of taxes.

At any informal hearing the taxpayer will have the opportunity to present documentation to the appraiser supporting the value the property owner considers correct. Types of documentation than can help support a property owner’s estimate of value are documents showing a recent sale of the property, recent sales of comparable properties, or pictures of the property showing any damage or problems that might not have been noticed by the appraiser. Business machinery and equipment are not valued based upon market value. Any appeal on this type of property is based upon items such as cost, date of purchase and if new or used at time of purchase.

Anyone wishing to appeal an informal decision from the County Appraiser can file an appeal with the State Court of Tax Appeals (COTA). The division of COTA where the appeal is set is based upon the value and class of the property. This is only if you appeal an informal decision from the County Appraiser. The Small Claims and COTA may be in Jefferson County but will most likely be in an adjacent county as set by COTA.