The Harris County Appraisal District has announced four free workshops to help business owners comply with business property rendition laws.
Chief Appraiser Jim Robinson today announced the four sessions to give business owners a chance to work with HCAD staff to answer question and give guidance on state rendition requirements.
Rendition is the disclosure of property used in a business operation to produce income. Business owners must report that information to the central appraisal district no later than April 15.
Failure to render property can subject the property owner to a financial penalty up to10 percent of the taxes due on the value of the property.
Items subject to the personal property tax include business furniture and fixtures, machinery and equipment, inventory and work in process, raw materials, supplies and business vehicles including vessels and aircraft.
Robinson stressed the information received is held confidential by state law.
“HCAD uses this confidential information in calculating an accurate Jan. 1 market value for a firm’s tangible personal property assets,” he said.
Failure to render covered property not only subjects a business to penalties, it means that HCAD will have to use industry-standard formulas to assign value that may be too high for the business in question, Robinson noted.
Additionally, providing a central appraisal district fraudulent information on business personal property can result in an investigation potentially leading to the filing of criminal charges or large civil penalties.
The workshops will be held at the appraisal district’s headquarters located at 13013 Northwest Freeway.
The sessions are scheduled as follows:
- Wednesday, March 24: 1-5 p.m.
- Wednesday, March 31: 1-5 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 7: 1-5 p.m.
- Saturday, April 10: 8 a.m-12 noon
All four meetings will be conducted in HCAD’s training room on the sixth floor.
Business owners who cannot attend one of the four workshops can still receive direct assistance by calling HCAD’s information center at 713-957-7800 during regular business hours.
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