Local Property Tax and The Non-Existent Oil & Gas Pipe
Sep 14, 2011OUTCOME: The ARB unanimously agreed that the ownership of the pipe transferred from my client to the buyer prior to January 1, and deleted the tax account; this reduced my client's tax liability on the pipe from just under $15,000 to $0.
The Harris County Appraisal District's Chief Appraiser made a detemination that my client had just under $400K of pipe in storage in Houston Texas, creating a property tax liability of about $15,000. ... My client had no record of any property held in Houston and submitted several affidavits to HCAD informing them that they were in error. After three Public Information requests, we determined that the pipe in question was part of a "rig return" transaction where used pipe is bought back from the client. Unfortunately for my client, there was no contract to refer to, only a receipt showing when the buyer took possession of the pipe, and a later memorandum showing how much credit was issued for the pipe. I appealed the Chief Appraiser's decision to the HCAD Appraisal Review Board (ARB). At issue was whether my client owned this property in Houston on or before January 1 of the tax year in question.
