85R8523 TJB-D
By: Darby H.B. No. 3774
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to hearings and protests before appraisal review boards
involving ad valorem tax determinations.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 25.25(e), Tax Code, is amended to read as
follows:
(e) If the chief appraiser and the property owner do not
agree to the correction before the 15th day after the date the
motion is filed, a party bringing a motion under Subsection (c) or
(d) is entitled on request to a hearing on and a determination of
the motion by the appraisal review board. A party bringing a motion
under this section must describe the error or errors that the motion
is seeking to correct. Not later than 15 days before the date of the
hearing, the board shall deliver written notice of the date, time,
and place of the hearing to the chief appraiser, the property owner,
and the presiding officer of the governing body of each taxing unit
in which the property is located. The chief appraiser, the property
owner, and each taxing unit are entitled to present evidence and
argument at the hearing and to receive written notice of the board's
determination of the motion. The property owner is entitled to
elect to present the owner's evidence and argument before, after,
or between the cases presented by the chief appraiser and each
taxing unit. A property owner who files the motion must comply with
the payment requirements of Section 25.26 or forfeit the right to a
final determination of the motion.
SECTION 2. Section 41.47, Tax Code, is amended by adding
Subsection (a-1) to read as follows:
(a-1) The board may not determine the appraised value of the
property that is the subject of a protest to be an amount greater
than the appraised value of the property as shown in the appraisal
records submitted to the board by the chief appraiser under Section
25.22 or 25.23 unless agreed to by the parties to the protest.
SECTION 3. Section 41.66(b), Tax Code, is amended to read as
follows:
(b) Hearing procedures to the greatest extent practicable
shall be informal. Each party to a hearing is entitled to offer
evidence, examine or cross-examine witnesses or other parties, and
present argument on the matters subject to the hearing. A property
owner who is a party to a protest is entitled to elect to present the
owner's case at a hearing on the protest either before or after the
appraisal district presents the district's case.
SECTION 4. The change in law made by this Act to Section
25.25, Tax Code, applies only to a motion to correct an appraisal
roll filed on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 5. The changes in law made by this Act to Sections
41.47 and 41.66, Tax Code, apply only to a protest for which the
notice of protest was filed by a property owner or the designated
agent of the owner with the appraisal review board established for
an appraisal district on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 6. This Act takes effect January 1, 2018.