Ranchland in McCulloch County may qualify for much lower property taxes

If you use land for ranching, farming, or wildlife management, Texas law lets you apply for agricultural special appraisal. Instead of taxing your land at market value, the county uses productivity value. That means it taxes what the land earns from cattle, goats, or crops. In a ranching county like McCulloch, that difference can be large.

To qualify, you generally need at least five of the last seven years of agricultural use. You apply through the McCulloch County Appraisal District using a form from the Texas Comptroller. One caution: if you later convert the land to a non-agricultural use, you owe a rollback tax. The rollback covers three prior years. It is the gap between what you paid and what you would have owed at market value. Check the Comptroller's page for current forms and rules before you apply or sell.