Fidelity Wrangles Up Millions in Taxes With Texas Cattle Ranch

A mere 25 cattle that Fidelity keeps on a small “working ranch” portion of 300 acres it owns on its Westlake, Texas, campus qualifies the firm for $360,000 a year in real estate tax breaks, tax appraisers tell the Boston Herald.

But the office complex and parking lots themselves are not covered by the “special tax value” that Fidelity first applied for in 1999.

In the past seven years, then, Fidelity would have saved an estimated $2.5 million in property taxes. Going forward, tax experts said, that will be multimillions in savings.

But Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley said Fidelity didn’t herd the cattle deliberately. The animals were on the Hunt family Circle T Ranch that was part of the land parcel that Fidelity acquired, she said.

Texas cattlemen told the Herald corporations commonly buy inexpensive land in Texas and apportion a part of the property as a farm. “It’s done all the time,” said Dalton Hoffman, an office manager at the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.

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