I know it is too late to protest 2024 Ad Val Taxes (usually May 15th-31st cutoff date), but does anyone know a good company or individual that specializes in protesting the valuation of producing royalty interests in Terry County, TX? I just received my 2024 Tax Statement yesterday and the tax rate has an effective rate of 14%. (I went back & checked 2023 and it had an effective rate of 11.7%. Maybe I am wrong, but I define effective tax rate as the actual Ad Val taxes paid divided by my actual net royalties received for the 12 month period. I know there can be some variations depending on oil price and production and the timing of these parameters, but this seems excessive.) Most counties where I have producing royalties have an effective tax rate in the 2.5 to 5% range so this seems too high. I only recently came into this ownership so I don’t have a history of what Terry County normally taxes producing royalties, but I am looking towards a protest next Spring when the 2025 assessment comes out. Any suggestions on a person to use to argue the valuation/taxes on royalties located in West Texas counties including Terry would be appreciated. Also, do other royalty owners in Terry County have this high of an effective tax rate? Thx
I’d suggesting filing a protest in 2025 (and make sure you file / because you may or may not receive an appraisal notice of value in the mail). I tried this earlier this year for the first time and sent the appraiser my check stubs so they could see the actual production and commodity price I was paid. I didn’t get it lowered as much as I had hoped (the appraiser showed me it was actually undervalued in previous years) but they did lower it some and I found it acceptable. I found doing it myself to be pretty easy. Got it done through email.
Very few tax consultants specialize in minerals. You have the data you need to protest in your hands. If you can’t get anywhere on your own after filing, there are a few firms that can help but I don’t know that the expense is economical to do so. There are tax consultants who will “represent you”, only for you to find out later that they merely filed a protest and didn’t do any work to get it lowered because they didn’t know how or care. Bruce Property Tax Solutions in Wichita Falls and Merit Advisors in Gainesville are the two I am most familiar with that do represent mineral owners.
The first thing I would do is call and ask why the effective tax rate is so much higher than in other counties. It’s possible they’ve made a mistake. I’ve had that happen on property taxes before. If there is no mistake, then file your notice of protest.