Winter Texan RV's being taxed

[Wiarton William]

I read an article that indicated there are two counties in RGV that are now about to tax (as in Property taxes) RV's that are left on sites in RV parks...as you might surmise this is creating quite a stir within the parked and permanent RV circles...basically IF the RV can be removed within a short time span (4 hours) it might be untaxable.....but...IF it takes 24 hours of hard work to remove the fixtures attached to the RV then I think they are subject to being assessed.... Having been on both sides of the fence and as a matter of fact...we are winter Texans (albeit mobile) we can see the whole picture......we live in a tourist area,, we own our home and thus pay the appropriate "dues" the summer crowd who have RV's parked in local campgrounds come up for the summer vacations... use and abuse the area and walk away....they pay no taxes and use all the facilities(those provided by the park.. we have no facilites supplied by the city)....The local towns have also started the taxation process and in fact have been backed by the courts and are now able to tax those units that appear to be "permanent".....the critereia for assigning the Permanent status is roughly as I mentionned above...If you have a large deck that cannot be moved within 4 hours or out buildings that interfere with the removal then they consider you a permanetn summer occupant..

Just to add a little credibility to my post I found the post I read in RVLivin.com...I just noted the date so its old news...anyone know if the city or RV'rs were successful???

Winter Texans Protest ‘Double Taxation’ Law
RV Business

A swarm of 50 Winter Texans, mostly RVers from the area’s 60 RV parks, descended Tuesday (Feb. 27) upon the county commissioners court in Edinburg, Texas, to protest taxation of their vehicles/dwellings as real property by both Hidalgo and Cameron counties.

According to a report in The Monitor, they are the only two Texas jurisdictions who hit RVers with a property tax on top of sales taxes paid when units were bought.

The issue has sizzled for a decade through legislative changes and opinions of Texas attorneys general, but finally erupted this year with a massive meeting in January at Twin Lakes RV Park in Mission, Texas, that led to the protest to county officialdom on Tuesday.

“Senior citizens coming down here are being screwed by the county,” said Gene Flynn, who has been embroiled in the issue for years. “These people are getting old, and they can’t haul back and forth like they used to, so they’re leaving their RVs here and they’re getting taxed.”

Scheduled as item No. 17 on the meeting agenda, the issue quickly was elevated to the first order of business by Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas III after he saw the packed 72-seat hearing room before him and sensed the anger and restlessness of the crowd.

One by one, aggrieved RVers stepped up to a microphone and let loose at the commissioners, as well as the county’s tax assessor-collector.

They complained about the double taxation, about their own limited incomes, about the arbitrariness of what properties are taxed and what aren’t, and about how no one seemed to be paying attention to their plight.

“Have you considered how much we contribute to your economy in food and fuel?’ asked DeLores Simpson. “We volunteer in your schools, in your hospitals.”

When Rolando Garza, Hidalgo’s chief tax appraiser, showed slides of RVs that were taxed and those that weren’t, the crowd sniffed. To them, in many cases, it was difficult to see substantive differences between units that had such attachments as porches and decks, and were thus probably taxable, and those that could be moved in as little as an hour and probably were not taxable.

Finally, Commissioner Oscar L. Garza Jr. said the situation was too complex to solve then and there, and that more concrete information was needed.