VIDEO: 90-minute seminar on your 2020 Texas property tax — and how to protest your appraisal from Watchdog Dave Lieber

VIDEO: Welcome to The Watchdog’s 2020 Property Tax Seminar loaded with the latest information from two of the best property tax consultants in Texas. This program was recorded on May 1, 2020 and sponsored by The Dallas Morning News Rewards program. The Watchdog’s guest experts are Glenn Goodrich of propertytax.io and Will Wiggins of North Texas Property Tax Services.

BONUS: In these stories below, you’ll learn from Dave Lieber, The Watchdog, how to protest your property appraisal leading to your property tax — and why you should.

And let’s not forget that Dave is the only columnist in America with his own flag. It’s his philosophy. It’s radical, yes, but thousands have tried and many have won. They’ve lowered their property values which in turn can lower your annual tax bill!

“2020 is going to be an ugly year for property taxes,” Dave says. “You’ve got a thick new Senate Bill 2 property tax law that goes into effect. You’ve got a devastated economy that won’t be reflected in 2020 tax appraisals because a property’s condition on Jan. 1, 2020 is what matters.

“You’ve got cities and counties trying to force their way through a loophole that may let them double their tax increases, even thought it’s not allowed under the new law, ” Lieber says. “And you’ve got the uncertainty about whether in-person meetings to protest during this coronavirus epoch are even possible. That’s a lot of baggage on a system that is already rigged and unfair,” Lieber says.

Couple more important notes:

Notice the 2020 deadlines to file a protest. Everyone is different.

Dallas County – June 15

Denton County – May 30

Collin County – June 15

Tarrant County – May 1

Rockwall County – May 15

Another warning: If you don’t receive an appraisal notice in the mail one month before your county deadline, go to your county’s appraisal district website and look up your property online. The law says they don’t have to send you a notice if your property doesn’t increase in appraised value by more than $1,000. This is a dirty trick. Without a notice, you won’t get a reminder that you can protest. You can protest if your property appraisal is lower, the same or higher than the year before. But not getting a notice cuts down on that, to the benefit of the government, not you.

So you must check your property online at your appraisal district’s website. It’s very important! Some counties’ data are already loaded, but others, such as Dallas DCAD won’t be sending notices out until around May 15 so their website may not be up to date until then.

Here’s a collection of some of Dave Lieber’s recent stories. He’ll be writing many more, so check out his columns. New ones appear on Fridays and Sundays in the print newspaper and always at https://www.dallasnews.com/watchdog.

To read stories below, click on the headlines. And if you run into our pay wall, please spend a few bucks. This is worth it. Spend a few to learn how to possibly save thousands. That’s a good ROI.

Oh, and because some of these stories are old, things might have changed. The more recent stories are likely more accurate.