La Incubadora Podcast is part of the Economic Growth Business Incubator, a local non profit with the mission to provide training, coaching, and support to aspiring existing business owners who face barriers to growing a successful business. La Incubadora Podcast is born out of the need to put in video and audio a lot of the success stories that we see at the business incubator. We also want to frequently asked questions and connect small business owners with the resources to succeed in business on your own time and wherever you are while you have access to a mobile device. This episode is produced with the support of Raycast media, EGBI sends a big thank you to Raycast media for their partnership. Today we dive into the intricacies of Travis County taxes, assets, and inventory requirements for small business owners featuring insights from EXP experts at Travis county Appraisal District from understanding what constitutes personal property to navigating rendition forms and filing deadlines. We explore essential questions relevant to entrepreneurs, discover exemptions obligations regarding property value, discrepancies and implications of business changes.
The goal of this episode is to equip you with the valuable knowledge to effectively manage your tax responsibilities and asset inventory in Travis. Travis County Appraisal District business personal property department is responsible for maintaining all personal property accounts including reviewing renditions on personal accounts including renditions on personal property and removing accounts for entities that are no longer in business as of January 1st of each year. Our host will be Amy Cobb and we have two guests from TCAD, our first guest is Nancy Wiatrek, who serves as director of the Business and Public policy department and has more than 15 years of experience working on personal property issues with the district. We also have invited Samantha Leija, who currently serves as a senior personal property appraiser and has been with TCAD’s BPP department for more than two years.
What does Travis Central Appraisal District do and what do you all do?
Nancy says,
This mission of the Travis Central Appraisal District, given the coordinate of the Texas Constitution and the laws of the state is to provide accurate appraisal of all property in Travis County at 100% market value that is equally and that in a professional ethical and economical courteous manner. We work to ensure that each taxpayer only pays their fair share of the property tax burden. To keep our current data correct, business personal property appraisers will conduct an annual canvas for each personal property account in Travis County. Additionally visit each address to encourage compliance in reporting by taxpayers and to discover personal property. Typically if you own a business you are required to report personal property that is used in your business to the appraisal district. The appraisal district uses the information to estimate the market value of your business property for annual tax purposes. Texas requires businesses to pay property taxes to each taxing unit based on the market value of the inventory and assets it owns or uses in the production of income. This year we are estimating 35,000 renditions that will be mailed out to Travis Central business owners within the next week that is due April 15th. We have a lot of renditions that we are going to be provided back and all of our appraisers are going to process through
What counts as personal property, and why do I have to fill out a Rendition Form?
Samantha says,
What counts as a personal property is all assets are used in production of income, so that’s going to include your furniture, such as desks, chairs and tables. Machinery equipment such as restaurant equipment or like your heavier machinery like forklifts, Office machines like computer scanners and phones, we also have computers, vehicles, boats, aircraft, raw materials, finished goods. Businesses aren’t required to render intangible personal properties so you’re looking at your cash, accounts receivable, computer software such as your Microsoft Office. Rendition Forms have to be filled out annually by April 15th or by extension May 15th. That extension is automatically granted so long as it’s been requested before April 15. We have a form on our website that can be mailed in but we can also receive emails for those extensions as well.
The extension form at the bottom has an address to mail to as well as our email address is: bpp@tcadcentral.org
Travis County Appraisal District mailing address is: 850 East Anderson Lane Austin, Texas 78752
What happens if I don’t complete a rendition form, and what if I sold my business last year but still received a property tax bill?
Samantha says,
If you sold your business last year, we do need to be notified which can be done a couple different ways so you can do it by email bpp@tcadcentral.org and you could also mail in a not in business affidavit that can be requested directly from the cad. Email is always better because we can print that out directly and send it via email and it just needs to be returned once we do that, the account will be closed for the year.
Are there exemptions available that would exempt me from having to fill out a rendition or pay property tax?
Samantha says,
Yes we do have a couple different exemptions available that would exempt you from having to fill out a rendition or property tax. We have a religious or charitable exemption so those are going to be your nonprofits and of course your churches. If those are granted, property owners don’t have to fill out an annual addition. Once it’s granted then it keeps that exemption for the life of the property. We do have another exemption for a vehicle used both in the production of income and personal use, you’re looking at your realtors. That makes the vehicle exempt from taxes but all other assets are still required to be rendered and they are still subject to taxes. That exemption is per vehicle not per account, so if the vehicle is sold or replaced a new exemption needs to be applied for. All other exemptions we have such as Freeport Exemption and Biomedical Exemption, those are still subject to property taxes in some form. So an annual application and rendition are still required.
A non profit or church can’t just assume if they have their 501c3 through the state, they still have to file an exemption because it has to be at the county level as well.
My notice of Appraised Value was higher than the amount I rendered, why is that, and can TCAD help me complete my rendition form?
Samantha says,
A property owner is required to file a rendition per the Texas property tax code annually. However we at the district aren’t required to accept it typically because we’re seeing assets that are missing. For example, we’re looking at a rental car place and we want to see those cars along with the assets so we do have alternate methods of evaluation.
If you notice something is not right, there are instructions to file the protest on it and we don’t typically help complete rendition forms just because you’re the one who knows the most about your business so if we try to help you we may not have the most accurate information about what you’re reporting. Although we can answer general questions so what can go in what section or if you’re confused on some verbiage we can answer general questions about that rendition.
I disagree with my property value, can TCAD adjust my value without me having to protest?
Nancy says,
No, so once the market value has been set and a notice of appraise Value has been mailed, the only way TCAD can review accounts to make changes or potential changes is with an active protest on file for the year that the value is in question.
How can I find more information?
Nancy says,
The first thing you need to do is visit our website at www.traviscad.org there we have frequently asked questions you can speak to one of our customer service representatives by phone as well as through the agent and/or taxpayer portal. I do want to say that at the end of February 28th, the BPP department will be hosting an informational webinar at 12 pm to provide further detail in regard to business personal property. If you go to our website you may sign up on our web page. We look forward to seeing everyone at the next webinar and that is typically going to go over the rendition process. The webinar will be about an hour long.
Appreciation
Amy says,
It has been a pleasure chatting with Nancy and Samantha today and we hope you find this episode useful to you. If you know someone who could benefit from listening to this episode please share the link to this episode with them. Remember that La Incubadora Podcast is part of the Economic Growth Business Incubator, a business incubator in Central Texas that offers training, coaching, and support to small business owners with barriers to achieving success. If you would like to learn more about the Economic Growth Business Incubator services please visit egbi.org and see you soon!
En este episodio abordamos las diferencias entre LLC (Compañía de Responsabilidad Limitada) y DBA (Haciendo Negocios Como). Un LLC ofrece una entidad legal separada que protege los activos personales del propietario de las responsabilidades comerciales, mientras que un DBA es un nombre comercial registrado que a menudo está vinculado al nombre y activos personales del propietario. Registrar un DBA en Texas implica acudir a la oficina del condado local, mientras que un LLC se puede registrar a nivel estatal a través de una base de datos.
Ambas opciones tienen ventajas y desventajas. Un LLC ofrece una mejor protección de los activos personales, pero puede ser más costoso de establecer, mientras que un DBA es más flexible pero deja al propietario personalmente responsable. Larissa aconseja consultar con profesionales para elegir la opción correcta y destaca la importancia de los contratos y el seguro, independientemente de la elección. Un LLC permite la transferencia del negocio, mientras que un DBA no. Además, presentar un negocio con un DBA a inversores puede ser menos atractivo debido al aumento de los riesgos de responsabilidad. La consideración cuidadosa y la investigación son esenciales antes de decidir entre LLC y DBA para un negocio.
Recordemos que es importante contar con buenos contratos y seguros, sin importar si el negocio es un LLC o un DBA. Es fundamental llevar un control de las finanzas y evitar mezclar los fondos comerciales y personales, ya que esto puede conducir a complicaciones legales y poner en riesgo el negocio.
Kandance Vallejo, the visionary behind Remedios Consulting, shares valuable insights on launching and growing successful businesses with a focus on interpersonal relationships and leadership coaching. Transitioning from business ownership to consulting, Vallejo emphasizes innovative thinking in overcoming challenges.
Kandance’s advice resonates with small businesses and nonprofits, emphasizing coaching in leadership. In contrast, in a podcast, she discusses her entrepreneurial journey, highlighting the importance of interpersonal relationships and coaching.
Addressing scaling challenges, Kandance advocates for early hiring to prevent burnout, collaborates with Tressa Rowland for profitable strategies in 2024, and advises prioritizing business intelligence and realistic planning. She underscores the significance of strong teams and effective leadership hiring, training, and support. Kandance emphasizes responsibility in training employees and suggests seeking operational support for sustainable growth.
Kandace Vallejo is the owner of remedios consulting, she’s the founder and principal of remedios consulting and she’s a serial founder and intersectional organizer who has worked in social movements and philanthropy, she has built LED and scaled multiple efforts and grant making initiatives for racial climate and economic justice. She pairs her two decades of social impact experience with extensive training in the healing arts, her sharp political analysis and strategic mind combined with her keen business sense and highly relational sensibilities to position herself as a unique partner to nonprofit and philanthropic entities, working to align with and strengthen social movements. In 2014 she founded Youth Rise Texas, where she worked alongside young people to build a healing centered movement contesting criminalization and deportation. Miss Vallejo is a co-founder of the Texas Youth Power Alliance and the founding board chair of jolt action.
We share the conversation…
Larissa- What do you enjoy most about your job?
Kandace- Really for me, it’s about helping make other people’s life and their work easier and helping people grow, and helping people who are ready to take that next step in their life and their work. To take things to the next level and help connect people to other people and to other kinds of resources and to help people think outside of the box. Having been a founder I know so often, when you’re in the thick of everything and you’re just trying to get done with the things that you want to get done and you know everytime you get a big project done. I used to always say as a founder “I’m climbing 10 mountains at once and every time I climb one I look over the horizon and I’m like oh God there’s another 10 and you keep going”.
Larissa- Why do you think people/organizations fail to build profitable businesses?
Kandace- I think so often what I see leaders struggling with, whether it’s a business leader or a nonprofit leader, is that we’ve failed and I’ve done this too. I’ve failed to build the necessary foundations, back office and Operational Support that we need to be able to grow a sustainable and profitable business.
Larissa-What do business owners need to do to prepare to have a profitable 2024?
Kandace- One of the things that I would recommend people thinking about is to really focus on the basics of your business, what are your one to three main product, best sellers, what data can you pull about your revenue, your sales, your products, that can help you understand what are those three core products that your delivering to market. The other piece of advice I would give is, to think about your one or two major pain points that you’ve run into in the past year and try to think big picture about those pain points.
Larissa- How important is it to have a team that matches the goals of your business?
Kandace- Yeah I mean I was not aware that the statistics are that businesses will close in eight years, do more to the fact that there isn’t enough leadership support than its dues to revenue closure. I’ve seen it so many times, and i’ve lived it myself in the nonprofit world, working in startup nonprofit, and feeling burnt out and feeling like I just can’t get everything done in the amount of time that I have, and that feeling alone can really drive burnout so I really think team is everything. Think about how to build that core team as early as possible, of other leaders who are going to support your business growth.
Larissa-Why do employees fail?How important is it to have a team that is well trained for success?
I think that the training is of course crucial but I also think that if you are in a scenario where you have employees that you believed when you hired them you made the right choice and it’s still not working for some reason, then I think that’s also on us as owners and business leaders and nonprofit leaders to look at ourselves and to hold that mirror up to ourselves and say okay where did I go wrong to here to be able to identify for ourselves also our own growth edges or our business, to see where perhaps the business may be missing something that employee needed or where we as leaders may be missing something.
Larissa- What would you like people who listen to us to take away today?
Kandace- I think the biggest thing that I hope leaders that I used to talk to and work with, can think about is really how to build more Operational Support for themselves in their business. For some people, that is hiring an external company to do HR. For some people that might be contracting out your bookkeeping and paying someone else to do that piece of work that’s going to take them less time to do it then it will you because maybe you are not a numbers person.
Larissa- What services do you offer at Remedios Consulting?
Kandace- I think the way that I like to work with clients is very hands-on and very boutique so I don’t have specific programs that I put anyone through. What I like to do is have one to two discovery calls with someone to understand where they are at in the stage of their business growth, what are their major pain points, and what are they hoping to achieve in the coming years so that we can design a tailormade set of services for them.
Laura Ramos James is an expert with liability insurance and working with commercial businesses. Attorney Laura Ramos James is the owner of Ramos James law, a legal firm with over 20 years of combined experience in successfully handling hundreds of personal injuries and accident cases representing individuals, workers, and families who suffer from accidents, workplace injuries, product liability, truck accidents, wrongful deaths, and personal injuries. She graduated with honors from St Mary’s University and joined the prestigious Baylor law school program. Laura practiced as an insurance defense lawyer before becoming a planted lawyer and she’s truly knowledgeable of the legal strategies used by her opponents in court. She has won numerous awards during her practice. She and her team have continuously worked to develop their network of professionals to help their clients.
We share the conversation
Larissa- Please tell us a little more about your story and how you got to this career.
Laura- I am actually a dog bite survivor, I was bit by a dog when I was a toddler and I of course experienced trauma and injuries and a lot of the stuff that goes along with that. Growing up I wanted to help people that were in a similar situation but I didn’t quite know that my path would end up taking me to a legal career even though I did want to be a lawyer since I was little. Eventually I went to law school and found a way to be in the courtroom.
Larissa- What do you enjoy most about your job?
Laura-Two things I enjoy the most, I love writing wrongs and if somebody is responsible and refuses to take responsibility I just automatically side with the person that was wronged and it gives me great pleasure to bring justice to that person and make things right. The other thing that I really love is even though I’m an introvert, at the same time I’m a people person, I love people so I really truly love getting to know my clients, working with my team and getting to know people from all walks of life.
Larissa- Do you frequently work with small business owners, or against small business owners?
Laura- I would say a lot with small business owners because small business owners are typically the individual, so we work a lot with individuals and big insurance companies. We represent them as a person that was hurt, we don’t represent the business.
Larissa-Can you give us 3 examples of things that small business owners frequently fail to do and they should do to improve or mitigate risk?
Laura- That is really good I think focused and helpful because like you said it is very easy to think, $200, $300 that I save is gonna help me a lot but if you expose your whole business then it’s pointless to have not invested in protecting it. The three things that small business owners frequently fail to do and they should do to improve and mitigate risk would be to get commercial insurance, the other one would be to create a Limited Liability company (LLC) and to have a liability waiver in place for their company.
Larissa- Why do you think they don’t pay attention to it?
Laura- I think it’s a very easy call to say, I’ve gotten a quote. It’s $200 a month if I get commercial liability insurance or however much, like I would rather just use this money to get more laptops for my business. The majority of people, we don’t think it’s going to happen to us, like it happens to other people but we’re like what are the chances that it’s gonna happen here.
Larissa- What can be the consequences of neglecting to do this?
Laura- The consequences can range from, you having to pay out of your own pocket you know, open your checkbook and write a check to someone who is making a claim or trying to cover their losses, to absolutely losing your business. Losing personal assets if you fail to create an (LLC), so things that you have been working towards and building and trying to create can all get taken away because you neglected to mitigate risk.
Larissa-How can small business owners stay updated with risk management strategies for their business or vehicles?
Laura- I would say there are a lot of resources that are free of cost and some others have limited cost. Obviously staying in touch with organizations like yours and similar organizations can always be sharing those types of strategies with them, there are now in the Advent of the availability of information at our fingertips where we can just research things like that. The Texas department of insurance has put out certain resources like that for people.
Larissa- What would you like people who listen to us to take away today?
Laura- Probably, broader than the specific three things that we discussed, I would say, I would like small business owners to take away that, always stay educated always seek out knowledge and you know don’t bury your hand in the sand and say, you know we’re all busy, we all have homes and we all have businesses and things like that. It’s easy to kind of turn a blind eye or say, I don’t have time, I don’t have money. To seek out education is the best way to save some money in the future for your business and protect it.
