9 Topics in 90 Minutes

1. 9 Topics in 90 Minutes

2. Tax Lien Transfers • Tax lien transfers in ACT • Reporting • Senate Bill 247

3. Tax Lien Transfers In ACT • Client request to streamline current manual lien transfer process • Reduce clerk input errors • Improve efficiency • Complies with Texas Tax Code, Sec. 32.06. and Texas Administrative Code, Rule 89.702 • Tax Lien Transfer module added to Online Products • Produces certified statement of transfer of tax lien • Creates Delinquent Status entry for transfer of lien

4. Online Products – Transfer of Tax Lien • Entitlement • ACT_LIEN_TRANSFER – access to Transfer of Tax Lien

5. Transfer of Lien

6. Certified Statement of Transfer of Lien • Client Preferences • CPA_NAME_ONLY – Enter name of TAC (without a title or certifications) to appear in the main paragraph. • TAX_LIEN_STATEMENT_FOOTER – Address or verbiage wanted on the bottom of the statement.

7. Delinquent Status – Lien Status • Inserts transfer of lien record and creates note

8. Delinquent Status – Lien Status • Release – select Release from drop down • New release record inserted and note added

9. Tax Lien Transfer Report • BMI 673 • List all accounts on which a lien has been transferred for a specified year. • Sort order option – Account, Owner, Date • Produces a .csv file for Excel use.

10. Tax Lien Transfer Report – Sample

11. SB 247 – New Requirements • Imposes new requirements effective May 29, 2013 • Judicial foreclosure – requires property tax lenders to use judicial foreclosure • Advertising – prohibits false, misleading, or deceptive advertising “YOUR TAX OFFICE MAY OFFER DELINQUENT TAX INSTALLMENT PLANS THAT MAY BE LESS COSTLY TO YOU. YOU CAN REQUEST INFORMATION ABOUT THE AVAILABILITY OF THESE PLANS FROM THE TAX OFFICE.” • Secondary market – tightens the requirements for the assignment, transfer, or sale of tax liens • Payoff statements – requires prompt payoff statements

12. SB 247 Continued • Property tax loans are now prohibited if: • The borrower is 65 years or older and can claim a property tax exemption • The taxes are neither due nor delinquent and • The property is subject to another recorded lien OR • The property is not subject to another recorded lien • Additional provisions: • Truth in lending disclosure requirements • Prohibits lenders from funding subsequent year’s taxes without borrower consent

13. 9 Topics in 90 Minutes TNT Update

14. SB656 • Effective September 1, 2013 • Concerns adoption of budgets for all taxing entities (except school districts) • A vote to adopt the budget must be a record vote. • An adopted budget must contain a cover page that includes one of the following statements in 18-point or larger type that accurately describes the adopted budget:

15. SB656 • (A)  "This budget will raise more revenue from property taxes than last year's budget by an amount of (insert total dollar amount of increase), which is a (insert percentage increase) percent increase from last year's budget. The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year is (insert amount computed by multiplying the proposed tax rate by the value of new property added to the roll)."; • (B)  "This budget will raise less revenue from property taxes than last year's budget by an amount of (insert total dollar amount of decrease), which is a (insert percentage decrease) percent decrease from last year's budget. The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year is (insert amount computed by multiplying the proposed tax rate by the value of new property added to the roll)."; or • (C)  "This budget will raise the same amount of revenue from property taxes as last year's budget. The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year is (insert amount computed by multiplying the proposed tax rate by the value of new property added to the roll).";

16. SB656 • Adopted budget cover page must also include: • the record vote of each member of the commissioners court by name voting on the adoption of the budget; • the county property tax rates for the preceding fiscal year, and each county property tax rate that has been adopted or calculated for the current fiscal year, including: • (A)  the property tax rate; • (B)  the effective tax rate; • (C)  the effective maintenance and operations tax rate; • (D)  the rollback tax rate; and • (E)  the debt rate; and • the total amount of county debt obligations.

17. SB656 On final approval of the budget, entities must: • (1)  file a copy of the budget; and • (2)  if the entity maintains an Internet website, take action to ensure that: • a copy of the budget, including the cover page, is posted on the website; • the record vote is posted on the website at least until the first anniversary of the date the budget is adopted

18. SB1510 • Effective January 1, 2014 • Pertains only to counties and municipalities • Does not apply to hospital districts, ESDs, etc. • Removes the requirements for publishing the Notice of Effective Tax Rate and the Notice of Tax Revenue Increase • Updates the format for the Notice of Public Hearing-different for entities adopting a rate above the RTR or ETR • Replaces the Small Taxing Unit Notice

19. New-Notice of Proposed Property Tax RateTax Rate Below ETR & RTR

20. New-Notice of Proposed Property Tax RateTax Rate Above ETR or RTR

21. SB1510 • The new Notice of Proposed Property Tax Rates must be: • published in a newspaper with general circulation in the county or municipality, or • mailed to each property owner in the county or municipality • posted on website of the county or municipality by September 1

22. Questions?

23. 9 Topics in 90 minutes New Feature:Suits by Jurisdiction!

24. The Advantage…. • Dallas County has been using a similar process for several years nowso the process is proven. • Allows the user to determine exactly which years are included in the suit without the need to read a user note or decipher a cryptic cause number • With the double click of a mouse the user can see: • The taxing unit(s) involved in the suit • The law firm that represents that taxing unit • The status of each taxing unit’s portion of the suit • And if the filing type is the original filer or an intervener

25. The Advantage (cont)…. • Use BMI 638, Process LGBS Lawsuit File, and the system will do all the work. • Or use the Delinquent Status screen to manage your suits and “you”do the work. • The suit roll forward process at the beginning of the tax year does NOT roll forward the “by jurisdiction” details. When the suit file is processed in February, the details for the new year’s suit information will be available.

26. The Setup…. • Client pref SET_LEGAL_STATUS_BY_YEAR must be set to ‘Y’ • Client pref SUITS_BY_JURISDICTION must be set to ‘Y’ • Version 2 security user entitlement, CHANGE_LAWSUIT_BY_YEAR, must be granted to each user that you want to allow to create or update the jurisdiction associated to each suit via the Delinquent Status screen.

27. The Sting…. E = Edit U= Update The request sequence from your Edit run (only required in update mode) The accounts in the file will not be updated if this code does not match the county code associated to the account on Account Master (see next slide for Account Master). You may or may not enter this parameter depending on how suits are traced by the law firm’s delinquent system. Law firm that provided the file to process (optional).

28. The Sting (cont)…. The county code must match that entered in BMI 638 in order for the account to be updated by that program and visible in Delinquent Status.

29. The End Game…. The year the suit began The Operator ID shows the BMI 638 automated process

30. The End Game (cont)…. The year the suit began Taxing unit Involved Attorney that represents the taxing unit Filing Type

31. Suits by Jurisdiction Let ACT help you maintain accurate suit information!  Any Questions? Thank you for your attention.

32. 9 Topics in 90 MinutesACT Statement Log ACT records information about every batch and online statement that it generates.

33. ACT Statements

34. Statement Log Data

35. Statement Log Columns

36. Batch Statements

37. Online Statements

38. Accessing the Log

39. Statement Log Window

40. Deleting Log Entries

41. Conclusion • ACT automatically logs every statement • ACT provides integrated access to the log • ACT allows deletion of sets of log entries

42. Account Summary, Account History and Payment History Roy Seaman June 20, 2013

43. Account Summary Report • The Account Summary Report is designed to give a summary of a given account. It includes levy, levy balance, P&I due, attorney fees, payment date of last payment, total amount paid and balance due. • It is broken down by year and jurisdiction, and gives a total balance due at the bottom as well as a payment amount due for the following 3 months.

44. Account Summary Report – Quarter Account P&I is dictated by amounts due in each quarter

45. Account Summary Report – Multi-Jurisdiction Broken down by year and jurisdiction

46. Account History Report • This report lists payment activity and appraisal district changes for a specified account.  The data is shown for each rec type, year, and tax unit, although the data can be restricted to a single year or single unit if desired.  If no appraisal district changes have been made for the account, just the certified information will be printed.  Ag rollbacks and quarter pay accounts that have been split are displayed separately from regular tax levy data.  Fees have their own unit number and thus are also shown separately within each rec type. • The payment portion of the report lists payments beginning with the most recent one.  The payments are sorted by validation number.  The following information is shown in this portion of the report:  year, tax unit, rec type (TL, OS, etc.), deposit number, validation number, remit sequence number, deposit and receipt dates, paid levy, discount, penalty, interest, collection fees, refund, variance, total paid, and fiduciary number (payer).  If no payments have been made for a particular year, unit, and rec type, a message to that effect will be printed on the report. This part is sorted in descending chronological order.

47. Account History Report • The Certified Owner will always be the owner for the current tax year. • For the appraisal district change portions of the report, the following information is provided: rec type, receipt number, gross value, homestead total amount, revision code, HOVDFAER exemption info, exemption amount, taxable value, levy, levy change, date of change, and operator code of the person who made the change.  This part is sorted in descending chronological order. • This report is also available from the Payment History screens: a report produced from the Payment Summary screen lists all years and units; a report produced from the Unit Transactions screen shows data only for the year displayed on that screen. • Some clients want to have a page print at the end of the report that can be signed and used if refunds are pending.  If you want this page, set the client preference SIGNATURE_YES to Y.  Otherwise, set it to N.  Set the COLLECTOR preference to the name you want to use as the signature on the left side of the page. Set the CPA preference to the name to use on the right side. The title on the right side, under the CPA name, is created by using both the COUNTY_NAME and CPA_TITLE preferences.

48. Account History Report Levy change due to adding HOM

49. Payment History Report • The Payment History report contains details of the payments. This report provides data by year, deposit, and tax unit. • If you click on the Unit Transactions tab for a given year, then the Payment History and Account History reports will be for that year only. If you click on those buttons on the first tab (Payment Summary) then it will be for all years.

50. Payment History Report