Enrolled Bill Summary

House Bill 988	House Author:  Shine et al.
Effective:  See below	Senate Sponsor:  Hancock et al.

            House Bill 988 amends the Tax Code to set out and revise provisions related to the state's property tax system. Among other provisions, the bill does the following:

·       requires an appraisal review board (ARB) to adopt procedures for the hearings it conducts and requires an ARB to incorporate the comptroller of public accounts's model hearing procedures when adopting its own procedures;

·       requires certain taxing units voting for a position on the board of directors of an appraisal district to be determined by resolution adopted at an open meeting;

·       creates an offense for a member of the governing body, officer, or employee of a taxing unit to communicate with the chief appraiser or another employee of the appraisal district for the purpose of influencing the value at which property in the district that the person does not own or lease is appraised;

·       temporarily authorizes a taxing unit any part of which is located in an area designated a disaster area by a disaster declaration issued on or after January 1, 2020, to extend the date by which goods‑in‑transit must be transported to another location in or outside of Texas to qualify for the tax exemption for such property;

·       requires each appraisal record to have a unique account number that is provided to the property owner and provides for the combination of contiguous parcels or tracts into a single appraisal record or the division of segments of a parcel or tract of property into individual appraisal records on the request of the property owner;

·       makes an appraisal district's taxpayer liaison officer responsible for receiving and compiling a list of complaints filed concerning a matter related to the fairness and efficiency of the district's ARB;

·       requires an informal conference to be held on request of a property owner before a hearing on the taxpayer's protest and requires an ARB to sit in a single‑member panel to conduct a hearing if the owner requests it; and

·       provides for the use of limited binding arbitration to compel an ARB to comply with certain procedural requirements related to a taxpayer protest.

The bill takes effect January 1, 2022, except that certain of the bill's provisions take effect June 15, 2021.