I'm thinking of using a tax protest company here in RR for the first time and was wondering if anyone had a company they would recommend. So far I see Ownwell and TaxProtestMap as two popular options.

I love taxprotestmap and have used them for years. Highly recommend over ownwell

Wilco tax assessment says 10% tax increases are "mandatory" until assessed value equals market value.

I can't find anything in that states such in the law. Am I wrong?

Using ornwell now for the first time. We'll see how that goes. Used to be on Five Stone before they changed their fee structure.

Who?mikejones! said:

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Wilco tax assessment says 10% tax increases are "mandatory" until assessed value equals market value.

I can't find anything in that states such in the law. Am I wrong?

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Home stead exemption caps increase to 10% if appraisal is more than 10 % above assessed value the pervious year.

So 10% is not mandatory but likely if your asset value last year is below market value.

Who?mikejones! said:

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Wilco tax assessment says 10% tax increases are "mandatory" until assessed value equals market value.

I can't find anything in that states such in the law. Am I wrong?

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Their goal is to tax you as much as they can, so they always want the appraised value to equal the market value. If your market value is more than 10% higher than your current appraised value, they can't raise your appraised value more than 10% each year. So in the realm where they are trying to make the two values match, but market is >10% above appraised, yes a 10% increase would be "mandatory" to them. But it isn't something written into law.

I understand the cap.

But, there's nothing "mandatory" about rasing taxes 10% until assessed value meets market value. This reeks of the assessor trying to deceive homeowners about why they are increasing values to the max.

Its totally within their authority to raise the rates 10% per year so long as the assessed value is below the market value.

I called wilco cad and spoke to a very nice lady there. She happened to be on the committee that approves the language in the notices and agrees the language was incorrect and misleading. She said she'd get it changed. We will see, I guess.

Who?mikejones! said:

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I understand the cap.

But, there's nothing "mandatory" about rasing taxes 10% until assessed value meets market value. This reeks of the assessor trying to deceive homeowners about why they are increasing values to the max.

Its totally within their authority to raise the rates 10% per year so long as the assessed value is below the market value.

I called wilco cad and spoke to a very nice lady there. She happened to be on the committee that approves the language in the notices and aggress the language was incorrect and misleading. She said she'd get it changed. We will see, I guess.

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We both agree that it is not mandatory in a strictly statuatory sense, but I would guess there is language somewhere in their county level appraisal rules that says the appraised value should be set at the market value. They are prohibited from doing that by the cap in years where the market value goes up more than 10%. So to them, raising the appraised value 10% is mandatory to try to make the appraised value match the market value. Using that language to try to imply it is require by some law is a bit misleading though.

TCAD has the 2025 appraisals posted online. Our value went down about $47k, but it's still above the homestead cap limit. So we'll be looking at yet another 10% increase in the "net appraised" value. Assuming (which is always dangerous to do with this arcane system) that equates to a 10% increase in our taxes, we're looking at about $14.5k next year. So I guess I'll start my annual Zillow daydreaming of where we can retire that doesn't base the vast majority of your tax burden on the value of your house.

Tcad claims my house improved by 300k.

I think I remember the state requiring CADs to not underestimate market. So this forces counties to move up or down to that value. I think it passed a law.

Feel free to fact check this.