Hockey Night Replay

Our 635 fans had a blast at our 12th Annual Hockey Night with the Houston Aeros on February 27th. Unfortunately, the Aeros didn't have as much fun as they dropped an important game to the Texas Stars 5-2. It didn't help at all that the Stars first 3 shots on goals each went in. Despite the woeful start and the final score, the game was exciting as the Aeros had 8 power plays and outshot their opponents 33-18. The game also ended in a fan favorite scrum by the benches. Check out the photos on our website or by clicking here.

Our 2nd Annual Hockey Night with the San Antonio Rampage will be held on March 27th when the Rampage will take on the Lake Erie Monsters. This is going to be an exciting game. Both the Rampage and the Monsters are sitting in 5th place in their respective divisions. Since only four teams from each division make the playoffs, both teams are playing hard to move up one more spot. Every remaining game is critical for the Rampage so you'll see them playing with intensity.

We'll have a big group coming from Houston to cheer on the Rampage (which we be very weird since the Aeros and Rampage are big rivals). In our special drawing among board members, George White and family from Silver Ridge won the trip to Hockey Night in San Antonio.

Freeze Damaged Landscaping

Houston was hit with an unusually cold winter this year with snow and a couple of hard freezes. Freeze damage to landscaping is evident in homeowner's yards and on the community common areas. Although some types of plants will be lost, most will recover. Here are some tips courtesy of GreenPros (713-974-5823), a Houston area landscape maintenance company since 1986.

With all the freeze-damage this past cold winter, it is finally time to prune your plants back. No need to overreact by just pulling them out and replacing them; give them some time to come back. This may save you a lot of money at the nursery. Ornamental grasses and perennials can be cut to the ground. Woody ornamentals (Oleander, Roses) can be pruned back, as well as tropicals (Palms, Hibiscus, Gingers, Ferns). This can all start the first of March when you get out in the yard for your spring clean-up. Mulching is a good thing to do in the spring as well; this will help with weed control. It will also reduce your watering in the hot summer to come.

The one thing you may not want to jump into too early is your fertilizing program. Remember, if the plants are not growing, they will not use all the fertilizer you put down. Soil temperature is key to the start of the growth cycle for most plants; so don't fertilize too soon. With Houston's late fall, early spring rains can leach all the fertilizer nutrition past the root zone before the plant has time to use it.

Political Signage

There were some interesting results in the March primaries but the real fireworks will come in May as candidates in Texas vie for positions in local, state and federal races. In the governor's race, Houston's former mayor and San Antonio native, Bill White, will be running against popular and sometimes controversial, Rick Perry. You can bet there will be campaign signs everywhere.

So let's review the law regarding political signs. In 2005, the Texas legislature passed House Bill 873 dealing with the regulation of political signs by community associations. It became effective immediately upon signing by Governor Perry on 6/18/05. The law protects political signs for candidates as well as ballot issues and overrides existing deed restrictions or rules regarding signage.

Any resident may install political signs on their property up to 90 days in advance of the election until 10 days after an election. For this year's May 4th election, signs could go up as early as 02/03/10 (or 12/02/09 if you start with the March 2nd primary election) and may remain until 05/04/10. That is the 101 day protected window.

Within this window, the law does allow a community association some degree of regulation. For example, a guideline can be established which limits political signs to one per candidate or ballot issue. Signs can be restricted to 4’ by 6’ or smaller. Signs can be restricted to ground mounting. Offensive signs can be prohibited. Signs with music, sounds, lighting, balloons or streamers can be prohibited. Associations can remove signs in violation of their legally-allowed guidelines.

Without adopted guidelines, however, this law is very broad in its protection — all political signs are protected in that 101 day period regardless of numbers, size or appearance. Therefore, we believe it is extremely important that all associations adopt signage guidelines, file them in the county records and communicate them to all residents. Most of our communities did this in 2005.

If your community does not have guidelines, we can draft Guidelines for Political Signage for your consideration (click here to see a sample). Your community manager will help customize them for your needs. You may want the association's attorney to review them before they are adopted.

Now get out and vote!

Tax Time is Upon Us

Not many people look forward to April 15th - especially not, if you procrastinated in doing your federal tax return or if you owe income tax. Just be thankful we don't live somewhere that has a state income tax! But for community associations, the tax deadline is March 15th or May 15th. Extensions are available for filing the return but any taxes due must be paid by the deadline.

Communities which have gone through the application process and received a federal tax exemption from the IRS as a 501(c)(4) organization must file a form 990 return by May 15th. For all other associations, the deadline is March 15th. Each year, C.I.A. Services does the tax calculations for each of our communities, prepares extensions and makes the estimated tax payments via electronic funds transfer to the IRS. All that is now done for the 2009 taxes. If the community will be having a CPA audit done, the CPA will prepare the federal tax return as part of their engagement. If not, C.I.A. Services prepares the tax return for the community.

There is sometimes a misconception that community association don't pay taxes because they are non-profit. However, non-profit is a description of the type of corporation and not reflect the taxable status. There are many types of taxes and each taxing authority treats community associations under their own rules.

• Federal income tax - Community associations may apply for a federal tax exemption but the application process is not free, is not guaranteed and may have little financial benefit to smaller associations. The IRS does, however, provide an option for homeowners associations to file a special return that may result in lower taxes (form 1120-H). An association can do the tax calculations both ways (as a regular corporation and as a homeowners association) and choose whichever results in the lower taxes. The 1120-H return benefits many associations. We do the calculations both ways and about half of the returns we prepare each year are 1120-H returns.
• Texas franchise tax - For associations with less than $300,000 in revenues, there is no tax. For those with higher revenues, the tax is relatively low. However, once the community is under the control of homeowners, it is easy to apply for an exemption from this tax.
• Sales tax - If the IRS has granted a federal tax exemption, the state will issue a sales tax exemption. Otherwise, the association must pay sales tax on all taxable services. Many services purchased by associations, however, are not subject to sales tax such as attorney fees, lifeguard services (chemicals & maintenance are taxable), grounds maintenance along public roadways (maintenance of community land is taxable), etc.
• Property tax - All land owned by a community association is taxable based on the tax rate set by each taxing authority. However, appraisal districts set the value of land owned by associations at "nominal value". Each appraisal district set their own definition of nominal value but it is always a very small number. Nominal value is based on the concept of double taxation. For example, a community may have a recreation area with a park, playground, swimming pool and tennis courts that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build. The appraised value of every home in that community is slightly higher than a similar community with no facilities for its residents. Therefore, each homeowner in that community pays incrementally more taxes because the recreation area exists. So if taxes were also collected on the recreation area itself, there would have double taxation.

So the bottom line is that all associations pay some level of taxes. C.I.A. Services deals with all of these taxes to ensure that the amount paid is as low as possible.

Upcoming Seminars

The C.I.A. Services Seminar Series has two great seminars in March and April. This is our 7th year of presenting educational seminars for our board members and other community volunteers. Each seminar concentrates on the practical aspects of the topic and provides board members with background knowledge to help them in their decision making. We consistently receive positive feedback on the content and presentation. To view the seminar descriptions and full schedule, click here or visit the Library page of our website.

Each seminar begins at 6:00 p.m. and runs 2 hours. We provide deli sandwiches so you won't have to rush to eat dinner beforehand. You'll leave with knowledge you can use immediately and a great notebook with the seminar slides, samples and reference materials for your future reference and to share with others.

Practical Deed Restriction Management Deed restriction management is one of the most difficult tasks handled by homeowners associations because it involves subjective decisions, homeowner's property and emotions. This seminar covers the steps in deed restriction management and how a process can contain "intelligence" and common sense. We discuss the relation between deed restrictions and architectural guidelines and give you examples of well crafted guidelines. Practical deed restriction management requires clear communications and reasonable requirements. March 16, 2010 (Tuesday), 6:00 p.m. — Bandera Office March 17, 2010 (Wednesday), 6:00 p.m. — Southwest Office March 24, 2010 (Wednesday), 6:00 p.m. — North Office

Board Member Orientation This seminar is a must for all new Board members and a great refresher for seasoned veterans. It will help you get up to speed quickly by understanding your responsibilities and authorities. We'll review each of the documents that govern the way you do business. We'll give you an overview of the governing documents, basis of authority, conduct of meetings, elections, collections, deed restrictions, architectural control and many other important topics. April 14, 2010 (Wednesday), 6:00 p.m. — Southwest Office April 29, 2010 (Thursday), 6:00 p.m. — North Office

You can register at any time by calling 713-981-9000 or emailing seminars@ciaservices.com.

Community of the Month

We are proud of every one of our communities so it is always hard to find just one to highlight. We start by having each of our Community Managers write a nomination for one of their communities. We then read them and take a vote. Here are our most recent selections:

• March - Traces Section II Community Improvement Association
  North Office - Brenda Ellington, Community Manager
• February - Stable Gate Homeowners Association
  Southwest Office - Kim Easterling, Community Manager
• January - Fairway Pointe Community Association
  Southwest Office - Libby Hodges, Community Manager

To see the full story on these communities and to see the past winners, visit the Community of the Month page on our web site.

Anniversaries

Every month we appreciate the communities that are celebrating their anniversaries with us. Here are the clients that started with us in March.

• Park Place Townhomes Homeowners Association — 20 years
• Hunterwood Village I Homeowners Association — 13 years
• Colony Grant Homeowners Association — 10 years
• Eagle Springs Commercial Association — 7 years
• Fairfax Village Homeowners Association — 7 years
• Summerwood Commercial Property Association — 4 years
• Cross Creek Ranch Community Association — 2 years
• Brays Forest Patio Homes Maintenance Fund — 1 year

Our goal has always been to create a positive, long term relationship with all of our client communities. We are very proud to be managing all of these communities.

Employee Spotlight

• Congratulations to Karla Santos and Paula Lunsford, both maintenance coordinators and stockholders at our Southwest Office, who started with us on the same day 7 years ago. Each has worked in several positions for us to gain broad experience.
• Congratulations to Dan Barr, a multi-faceted support staffer and stockholder at our Southwest Office, on his 6 year anniversary with C.I.A. Services.
• Thank you to Nellie Martinez, a community manager at our Southwest Office, for teaching two sessions of Collections & Financial Reports from our C.I.A. Seminar Series last month.



Karla Santos		Paula Lunsford
Dan Barr		Nellie Martinez





C.I.A. Services, Inc. www.ciaservices.com Toll Free: 866-219-0563
Southwest Office 9800 Centre Parkway, Suite 625 Houston, Texas 77036-8294 Phone: 713-981-9000 Fax: 713-981-9090	North Office 8811 FM 1960 Bypass, Suite 200 Humble, Texas 77338-4023 Phone: 281-852-1700 Fax: 281-852-4861	Bandera Office 465 Bear Springs Road Pipe Creek, Texas 78063-3178 Phone: 830-535-6222 Fax: 830-535-4265


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