New Texas Law Concerning

Business Personal Property

A new law was passed that requires all business owners to file an annual report of their business personal property (called a rendition) with the appraisal district each year. This new law will impose tough penalties on those who fail to file the report and it will impose even tougher penalties for those who attempt to evade taxes through fraudulent or incomplete reporting. The legislature recognized that when this new law takes effect, there would be some businesses that will be liable for back assessments if the appraisal district discovers property they did not know about through the new reports. For that reason, the new law provides a one-time amnesty from back assessment of business personal property that has escaped taxation.

Senate Bill 340, effective September 1, 2003, provides an amnesty from back assessment of previously untaxed business personal property if you render the omitted property for 2003, provide the information required on the rendition form, and file it with the Shelby County Appraisal District before December 1, 2003. The 2003 Special Rendition Form may be picked up at the Shelby County Appraisal District Office at 724 Shelbyville Street in Center, Texas or it can be filled out on-line at the Comptroller of Public Accounts website at www.window.state.tx.us. If, as a result of the information you provide, the appraisal district determines that some or all of your business personal property has been omitted from the current or prior year’s tax assessments, the amnesty provision only allows the appraisal district to add the omitted property to the appraisal roll for 2003. Under the amnesty provision, they cannot add the omitted property for prior years. In order to qualify, however, you must provide all of the information required by the rendition form and file it with the appraisal district prior to December 1. If you have any questions, you can call the appraisal district at (936) 598-6171.