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BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

 

H.B. 1205

By: Button

Ways & Means

Committee Report (Unamended)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

Currently, provisions of the Tax Code state that a refund of an erroneous or excessive property tax payment must be approved by the governing body of the local taxing unit if the refund exceeds $2,500.  The paperwork associated with refund claims, as part of the current process, takes the state auditor's office a week or more to review before forwarding to a county commissioners court.  The paperwork must then negotiate another stage of the refund process before the refund is finally mailed to the taxpayer.  This lengthy process can delay a taxpayer's receipt of a refund by up to five weeks.  Increasing the amount of a refund that requires local approval will decrease the amount of required paperwork and therefore the delay a taxpayer experiences before receiving a refund.

 

H.B. 1205 raises from $2,500 to $5,000 the threshold amount a refund must exceed before the approval of the governing body of the county is required in a county with a population of two million or more.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

 

H.B. 1205 amends property tax provisions of the Tax Code that set a threshold dollar amount that a prospective refund must exceed for the refund payment to require approval by the governing body of the taxing unit. The bill increases that threshold amount, in a case of a tax collector who collects taxes for one taxing unit, from $2,500 to $5,000 for a refund to be paid by a county with a population of two million or more, rather than 1.5 million or more, such that the threshold for a refund to be paid by a county with a population equal to or greater than 1.5 million but less than two million becomes $500, the amount that applies to all other taxing units.

 

H.B. 1205 also increases the threshold amount above which a refund payment requires approval by the governing body of the taxing unit that employs a tax collector who collects for more than one taxing unit from $2,500 to $5,000 for a refund to be paid by a county with a population of two million or more.

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

January 1, 2010.