Are you well-versed on how to report your company’s assets accurately, and forecast a reliable estimate for next year’s tax liability as well? Take a look below at some tips on how property tax professionals in the Lone Star State can best manage their assets for commercial property tax in Texas; and how to prepare for the 2020 budget season.

By now you’ve heard all about it: Technology is changing the way people work. That’s true across all industries and workplaces, whether it’s the floor of a manufacturing facility or the office space of an insurance company.

The concepts of an assessment and property tax have proven to be a point of confusion for some business owners—are they one and the same, or two different things? In fact, assessment is an integral function of the tax cycle, but taxation and assessment are two distinct things. The rationale behind the separation: It protects property owners from possible unfair treatment. As a taxpayer, that’s good for you, but there’s more you need to know to ensure you’re being taxed fairly.

When was the last time you or anyone on your property tax team went home at 5 p.m. on a workday during tax season?

Sounds impossible, right? Well, that was the case with one of our clients, whose office I stopped into recently at the end of a workday. The place was deserted. When I asked where everyone was, the response was, “They went home. They’re done!”

For oil and gas companies across the spectrum—upstream, midstream, and downstream—valuation of assets and the property tax process can be highly complex. By nature, several of the tasks involved are routine and mathematics-based—exactly the kind of tasks that computers excel at and, thanks to advanced technology, can do faster (and more accurately) than humans.

Whether you’re considering transitioning to new property tax management software or you’re a first-time user, the road to implementing a new property tax tool can be a long one. No matter what software you end up transitioning to, though, one thing is certain: You’ll only get the full benefit of the software if the data you put into it is clean and accurate.

Much of the recent Association of Computers and Taxation conference was focused on data analytics—how to manipulate data, and the opportunities and challenges analysis presents. A problem that was discussed at length is one most companies are currently struggling with: How do tax departments gain easier access to the variety of data that will help them make more strategic decisions?

You’re probably aware of the availability of experts who offer commercial property valuation services, but you may not know when or if you need them (or what exactly they bring to the table). This article covers the most common reasons why companies enlist a valuation expert for property taxes, and how to know if you should consider hiring one.

Often, transformation requires disruption. It’s our belief here at CrowdReason that the property tax industry is ripe for transformation, perfectly poised to benefit from disruptive influences such as artificial intelligence. And our advanced property tax software, MetaTaskerPT and TotalPropertyTax (TPT), are leading the charge.

Is your tax team currently using a homegrown tool to manage your company’s property taxes? You may be in that position for any number of reasons—you’re a small-enough company that your solution seems sufficient for the job; you expect you’ll have to pay more for vendor software than you do for your annual tax liability; or maybe you’ve simply been doing things the same way for so long that you haven’t investigated your options lately.