Osama’s Dead and Buried, but The Dallas County Real Estate Tax Doctor is IN

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The Tax Doctor

Meet Tiffany Hamil Mackey. She is a Dallas attorney who wants to get tough on taxes — property taxes, that is. Tiffany is a graduate of Southern Methodist University and received her Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from Texas Wesleyan School of Law. She attended the University of Florida, one of the top three tax programs in the nation, for her Master of Laws degree in Taxation. Yep, we’ve brought out the big guns here this year once again. Tiffany has helped thousands of property owners fight their appraisals and lower taxes and she is here for the next few critical weeks to take your questions.

By now, of course, you have received your appraisal. My guess is that few went up, few went down, most stayed the same. But look closely at what they did your values: did land go up while improvement went down? The deadline for protesting is June 1. Once again this year,  you can protest on line. When it comes to property taxes, foreclosures are your friend. Once again the chief appraiser may not exclude comparable homes that sold at foreclosure in any of the three years preceding the tax year. So that foreclosed home down the street may help lower your property value and this is one time when you embrace it.

State law also states that we can use homes sold within the last 24 months as comps, and the chief appraiser cannot exclude comparable homes that have declined in value because of the economy.

Also this year — we can arbitrate all residential homesteads and some real and personal property valued at $1 million or less and ALL residential homesteads.

That’s kind of complex, we’ll ask Tiffany to clarify.

So go get your appraisals, get yourself up off the floor, and write us here for The Tax Doctor: the Tax Doctor is IN.

Candy Evans, founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters.

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