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.

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.

“Simplified workflows”

“Fewer clicks”

“Intuitive design”

These are all terms that have been used to describe TotalPropertyTax (TPT), the most advanced property tax software in the industry. But what, exactly, do those terms mean as applied to daily use, and how do they impact the user experience?

If you’re operating your business in multiple states—or are contemplating putting down roots in another state—tax policies and obligations are probably already top of mind.

Like every industry, property tax has its share of conferences. Whatever you’d like to know more about, whether it’s real estate, personal property, business valuation, compliance, depreciation, tax technology, or anything else, there’s probably a conference that covers it. You’ll also find conferences that specialize in certain industries (like the Broadband Tax Institute’s annual conference for internet and cable companies) and ones that focus on taxation in certain regions (like the Texas Association of Assessing Officers conference). There’s no shortage of learning opportunities for those looking to expand their knowledge and skills.

Most organizations would take advantage of all available means to reduce their property tax bills—if only they knew about them (or had time to spend applying them).

If you’ve been reading our blog, you already know that the business personal property tax cycle is filled with complexities, whether you’re a business with one location or several. If you have 500 or more locations, keeping up with paperwork, information tracking, and due dates can be downright labyrinthine—never mind having enough time to put a case together for appeals (unless you’re taking advantage of all the tools at your disposal, which we’ll get into later).

Businesses can easily get bogged down in property tax data. County addresses, deadlines, valuation methods, depreciation tables, tax ratios… there are too many data types to list. And while there are common pieces of information people look for, the options are limited when it comes to places to look. That’s because a good chunk of this data varies by jurisdiction. So instead of having central repositories for “property tax information,” a single county website may be your only option. And even finding that isn’t quite as easy as it seems (we’ll get to that later).