Arbitration: A Texas Taxpayer’s Last — and Best — Resort!
Your Second Chance is Often Your Best Chance – and we’ll share the risk with you!
After the ARB makes its decision – even after a reduction there – Binding Arbitration is your last resort to get the taxable value you deserve. It’s also your best resort because it’s played on a field tilted in your favor.
In recent years our clients’ aggregate reductions from Binding Arbitration were more than double the reductions previously granted on the same properties by the Appraisal Review Boards.
Each taxpayer pays Property Tax Protest $500; we make the required deposit with the Texas Comptroller. You risk only $250 because we will refund half the difference between the deposit and your actual tax savings from Arbitration if they are less than your deposit. So, for example, if Arbitration saves you only $300, then we will pay you $100. Clearly, we won’t take a case we don’t think we can win!
Arbitration is available for all single-family homesteaded properties and for commercial properties up to $1,000,000 in value. Arbitration is played out on an uneven playing field tilted in your favor because if the arbitrator – who is not known to the District in advance – arrives at a value closer to the taxpayer’s request than to the ARB’s ordered value then the District must pay the $500 fee. A District has an incentive to compromise rather than risk the fee.
Those taxpayers who ignore Binding Arbitration may end up paying more than their fair share in property taxes.
