As you know, taxes are not cheap. They are a necessary evil, and our goal is to not pay any more than we have to. Today, I’m sharing my tips for reducing your rental property taxes. These are three good ways of protesting property taxes.
Talk to the Property Appraiser and Tax Authority
Go to the county courthouse or appraiser’s office and bring some documentation with you. Start with comps of homes that have sold in your neighborhood. Hopefully, they sold for less than what your tax valuation is. Bring pictures of your property and show that your home doesn’t have a lot of the features and upgrades that properties valued like yours do. Maybe you have things that are not as nice as the neighbor’s house, which has granite countertops and tile floors and a new roof. You could show that your house is a little lived-in and has Formica counter tops, old carpet, and a roof that’s 10 years into a 20-year lifespan. They can use that information to help lower your taxes. This is time consuming, especially if you have 10 properties, but tax authorities are usually willing to work with people who can prove themselves.
Hire a Firm to Protest Your Taxes
Some firms will protest your taxes for you. They might charge 50 percent of what they save you. So, if they take your tax bill from $3,000 to $2,000, that’s a savings of $1,000, and they’ll collect a $500 check from you. This might seem like a lot, but they are still saving you money in the end. There are large firms and small firms that do this, and based on my experience, I recommend a smaller firm. A larger firm isn’t going to be as vested in protesting your taxes.
Protest Taxes Online
The best option for many landlords is to visit taxprotest.me. This is a good website and lots of people have used this to protest taxes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. You can put your address in, pull comps, and generate a letter to send to your tax authority. That’s all you have to do, and the tax authority will hopefully see that it makes sense to reduce your taxes. Multiple Dallas-Fort Worth property management clients have used this successfully, so it might be a good website to look at. Full disclosure: I don’t work for them or get paid for that. But they seem like a good firm.
These three tips will hopefully help you reduce your tax burden. If you have questions about taxes on income property or anything pertaining to property management in Dallas-Fort Worth, please contact us at McCaw Property Management.