Your Business Gear Gets Taxed Too, and Rendition Is Due April 15

Property tax reaches past land and buildings. If you run a business in Tom Green County, whether it's a shop on Chadbourne Street, a welding outfit, or a restaurant, the equipment, furniture, machinery, and inventory you own are taxable too. Once a year you file a rendition, your own good-faith estimate of what that property was worth on January 1, with the Tom Green County Appraisal District at 2302 Pulliam St.

The deadline is April 15. If you can't make it, the chief appraiser will push you to May 15 on a written request, and can add another 15 days for good cause. Blow it off entirely and the penalty is 10% of the tax on that property; falsifying a rendition runs 50%, so the estimate needs to be honest.

Keep this lane separate from your sales tax and any federal income tax — those are different agencies entirely. The CAD's site carries the rendition form and a special declaration if you hold heavy equipment inventory. Questions go to [email protected], the district's dedicated business-personal-property inbox, rather than the general line.