Credit Unions Petition Council To Keep Tax Break
Agree or disagree with their position on property tax exemptions, you must admit that the island’s credit unions are organized.
They showed up in force to testify against recommendations from the Real Property Tax Advisory Commission yesterday. The panel says the Honolulu City Council should eliminate or reduce breaks for nonprofits, including the community’s alternatives to banks.
Now, the first official petition of the year is posted on the city’s website, and it appears to have been inspired by the credit unions. Here’s an excerpt:
The retention of the current tax status will provide relief to deserving island residents with special financial needs as well as entities, such as credit unions, that benefit the community. Credit unions have unique characteristics that qualify them for areal property tax exemption.
- Credit unions are not-for-profit, democratic, financial cooperatives owned by their members;
- Credit union members, rather than stock market shareholders or parent companies, all benefit from earnings being passed back in the form of competitive rates, and additional products and services;
- Credit unions, with limitations on who they can serve and restrictions on products and services, also have a social mission to provide service to people of modest means as well as to increase the level of financial literacy in the community.
It has 14 signatures so far. You can read the form letter here.
Decatur Memorial Hospital loses property tax exemptions
DECATUR, Ill. — The revenue raised by taxing Decatur Memorial will give more money to local school districts, park districts, police and fire departments, said Macon County Chief Assessment Official, Daysa Miller.
It will also lower what you have to pay in property taxes, she added.
Right now, she’s just waiting for the official letter from the state before getting started.
“We haven’t been officially notified yet,” she said. “We usually get something that says it’s been approved or denied to be exempt. Once that gets to us then we will put the whole hospital on the tax rolls and that will generate more revenue for the different taxing bodies.”
Information from the state show DMH runs more like a business than a charity with less than 1 percent of millions in net patient revenues going to charity care.
Decatur Memorial Hospital said in a release that hospital officials disagree with the ruling and intend to appeal it at every level.
They say the Department of Revenue is using data from 2006, and if it examined the hospital today, it would see that all of their current operations fit within tax exempt standards.
The Serfs - Brought to you by....
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary a serf is “someone part of a servile feudal class bound to land and subject to the will of their owner. “
For fun take out the world feudal from that definition and read on.
I hate to break it to you, but here in the United States of America we are not as free as most claim. In Feudal times serfs thought they were pretty free too, at least compared to others. I often hear “if you do not like this country then leave it! Why don’t you move to Iran?” (or something along those lines). Instead of making arguments to why one believes they are free people resort to comparing their situation to others. Why is that? Deep down people know they are not free and it is easier to parrot catch phrases then to make a valid argument. It is not true to believe you are freer then say Iranians, but yes you have more privileges granted to you.
One of the common things you see on conversations is people expressing their disgust with the government and wanting new people elected. When new people get elected….not much changes and people keep expressing disgust. Just for fun next time someone says “I hate the government and it is corrupt and destroying this country!” respond with” then get rid of the government”. Watch how many people go from hating the government to defending the government and reasons we need it. You can keep countering their arguments, but eventually people will hit a mental wall causing them to get angry or parrot catch phrases. It is always interesting.
Two things in the USA you do not own, but free people would. Number 1: land. You think you can peacefully live on land and stake a claim to it? Nope this is not possible in the USA. The government claims ownership of all land and you can tell very easily. If you own your land then why do you pay property tax on it? If you refuse to pay this tax then what happens? Yes exactly. It will be taken from you and you will most likely have government umm employees attack you and you will not be allowed to use that land anymore. This essentially means you rent this land from a higher class of people or one could say we live in a modern day feudalistic society. By the way do you have the proper permits to build that, no? Then tear it down or else! Say those public servant employees that supposedly work for you.
Number 2: Do you pay income tax? What is income essentially? The product of your labor, right? So essentially the government is claiming to own your labor and allows you to keep some of it. If you claim that you own all your labor, then what happens? Well the government will bring you to its courts and you will be ruled against then thrown in jail. If you refuse their courts then you will be assaulted and may die. Gee what would happen if a medieval serf claimed to own the land they worked on and keep the products of their labor? It would be pretty brutal for sure, but at least they weren’t slaves, right?
As you can see my goal is to create questions to force one to break through the mental box that is crafted for us from birth or you can spew hateful words at me, whatever makes one feel better about your situation. Pretending you are free is easy because it fits into your world view and feels like a safe thing to believe. It also means you can pretend things aren’t too complicated in his world and all you need to do is vote for that one special human who will make everything better. One must realize players in the game of power will always evolve how they try and control people. This will be an ongoing series of course…
The Silver Lining on the Decline in Real Estate Prices
Home prices are still going down in many markets. But your property-tax bill might well be going up.
The good news: There are ways to fight back.
Property taxes across the U.S. have increased by nearly 20% from 2005 to 2009, the most recent data available, according to an April study by the National Association of Home Builders. The median annual real-estate-tax payment was $1,917 in 2009, up from $1,614 in 2005.
Over the same period, home prices in major urban centers fared badly, decreasing 31%, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index.
Property taxes don’t move in lockstep with home values because local governments typically don’t measure values every year and some have limits on annual property-tax increases, says Natalia Siniavskaia, a housing-policy economist at the home-builders group. That means your current property taxes might reflect your home’s value when the market was healthier. Property-tax adjustments lag behind changes in home prices by an average of three years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
There isn’t much you can do about your property-tax rate, which is set by your local government. But homeowners can often get their assessment lowered if they appeal to their local assessor. That can translate into a lower tax bill.
More than half of homeowners are paying too much in property taxes, says Jim Kane, Chicago-based managing director of True Partners Consulting, a tax advisory firm.
One key to a successful appeal: fact-checking the assessor’s work. About half of all successful appeals come from homeowners pointing out an error in the assessor’s description of their home, Mr. Kane says. Such errors can drive up a home’s value.
To understand how these mistakes happen—and how to correct them—it is important to keep in mind how your local government assigns a value to your home.
Local officials can assign a value to your home using house-by-house appraisals, computer models or even aerial photos to gauge how many rooms are in a house or whether there has been a new addition, such as a deck or swimming pool. But it’s difficult to look closely at each home every year, so officials will also update home values based on recent home sales in your area.
The superficial nature of the assessments means details can be overlooked.
“We can be wrong,” says Dusty Rhodes, elected auditor and assessor in Hamilton County, Ohio, which includes Cincinnati.
That is what Lynne Weaver, a Phoenix retiree, discovered after her property-tax bill started climbing. To figure out why, she says, she went on the Maricopa County, Ariz., assessor’s website and discovered that a handful of her neighbors’ homes were assessed for as much as $205,000 less than her own property.
Ms. Weaver says she didn’t think the number was accurate because her neighbors’ homes were similar to hers in construction and acreage, but had backyard pools and other amenities. Her home had “grass and flowers” in the backyard and an unfinished basement, she says.
She appealed her assessment nearly half a dozen times over the course of six years before she stumbled on the problem: The assessor had incorrectly said a room used as an office was 300 square feet larger than it actually was.
Armed with that knowledge, she successfully lowered her property assessment by 45% to $390,000 in 2010 from $709,715 in 2009. The lower assessment cut her 2010 property-tax billto $3,257 from $5,597 in 2009. Ms. Weaver, who had already been advocating for cuts to local property taxes, says the experience of appealing her own assessment galvanized her even more. She runs a group that has tried unsuccessfully to get a measure on the state ballot to cap property taxes.
Paul Petersen, spokesman for the Maricopa County assessor’s office, says errors of that magnitude are uncommon. But errors can happen, he says, and that’s why “we expect the public to help us be more accurate” and appeal if it’s warranted. About one-fourth of residential property appeals result in a lower assessment, Mr. Petersen says, adding that the county reassesses properties every year to help reflect the changing market.
While Ms. Weaver fought back herself, you also can hire a tax lawyer or a property-tax consultant to do the legwork for you—if you are willing to pay up.
Some parts of the country have a stronger tradition of residents appealing property assessments because of higher tax rates or more-frequent assessments. Some states reappraise property values each year, while others do it once every several years. You might want to appeal your property value after each reassessment.
In Chicago, properties are assessed every three years. Residents appealed an average of one-fourth of reassessments during the past decade, according to data from the Cook County, Ill., assessor. An average of 18% of those appeals per year resulted in a decrease in the homeowner’s assessed property value.
Local officials say they expect appeals from property owners if it’s warranted, so don’t be shy. “The appeal process is part of the mass appraisal process,” says Burt Manning, chief appraiser for Fulton County, Ga., which includes most of Atlanta.
Here’s how to do it:
Checking Your Assessment
Most local governments allow residents roughly 10 days to 30 days to appeal their assessment after notification. To figure out the timeframe in your county or city, check your reassessment notice, which is typically sent in the mail, or call your local assessor’s office.
Ms. Weaver’s case points to the importance of ensuring your assessor has accurately described your property. To do this, you will need to review what is called the “property record card,” a summary of the characteristics of your home. Make sure there isn’t an extra bedroom, say, or three bathrooms instead of two. Extra features can drive up the value of your home. You can usually find a description of your home on your assessor’s website. If not, you might have to visit the assessor’s office.
If you have made substantial changes to your home—a refurbished basement or new marble counter tops—you might want to be a bit wary of an appeal, since it could have the unintended effect of driving your assessment even higher. But property-assessment advisers say you shouldn’t be too careful. If you feel your property is being overvalued by more than a few thousand dollars, it usually is worth the effort to appeal, they say.
Similarly, look closely at the assessor’s description of your home to ensure that any characteristics that would drive down the value of your property—repeated flooding in your backyard, for instance, or a leaky roof that would be expensive to replace—are duly noted.
How to Appeal
The key to a successful appeal of your property value, experts say, is comparable sales, or “comps.”
In many states, the appeal process is like a less-formal court hearing, where property owners present their case to several local officials or representatives. The simplest way to convince officials that your property has been incorrectly valued is to provide evidence of the sales price of homes that are comparable to yours, in terms of square footage, amenities and neighborhood characteristics. Bring sale documents and photos of your property, as well as the comps.
The websites of many assessors’ offices include recent property sales, or you can check sales prices in your newspaper or with a local real-estate broker. Experts caution homeowners not to rely on home-value data from Zillow Inc. or other online real-estate information and search firms, since their figures aren’t official and are unlikely to stand up as evidence in an appeal.
For purposes of comparison, you should consider only “arm’s length” sales, meaning a sale between two parties who don’t know each other. A sale between two people who do know each other could result in a lower price and is unlikely to be accepted in an appeal. Check for the same last name on sales documents as a clue that a sale isn’t arm’s length.
The appeal board also might question a home that sells quickly in a bad market, which could indicate an owner who needed to sell in a hurry. That means that sale might not work as a comp. Some property-assessment advisers say you can even use foreclosed homes, if those are the only sales in your area.
Assessors choose a specific date when measuring a home’s value, which might be several months before you receive your assessment notice. If your assessor set values on Oct. 1, 2010, and you are looking at home sales in June and July 2011, an appeal board is likely to reject those comps.
The weak housing market means there aren’t as many people selling their homes, making it difficult in some places to find comparable sales.
If that happens, you might consider hiring a professional appraiser to value your home. The average appraisal ranges from $350 to $600 for a typical single-family home, according to the Appraisal Institute, a professional association. Appraisers typically charge by the hour to appear at an appeal hearing. (To find an appraiser, go to www.appraisalinstitute.org and search by ZIP Code.)
Another option is to hire a lawyer who specializes in property-tax appeals. That is what Al Hollander did when he bought a house in Springfield Township, N.J., and realized that he was paying higher taxes than a nearby house that sold for about $35,000 more.
Mr. Hollander bought his home for $465,000 in May 2010. It is on 1½ acres and has five bedrooms and 3½ baths. But a nearby house, which sold for about $500,000 in the summer of 2009 and is on 2.2 acres with a swimming pool, paid $1,200 less in 2009 property taxes, he says.
Mr. Hollander, a physician’s assistant, hired a friend who is a property-tax lawyer to lower his assessment. “What do I know about property taxes? I go to an expert,” the 42-year-old Mr. Hollander says.
The lawyer helped Mr. Hollander lower his assessment from $605,000 to $550,000 for 2011 through an informal hearing with the assessor’s office. The cut reduced his 2011 property taxes to $12,000 from $13,100 in 2010. For 2012, his assessment decreased to $500,000, meaning additional tax savings of $1,100. Springfield Township officials were unable to be reached for comment.
Property-tax lawyers often work on contingency and charge 30% to 50% of the tax savings for each year, says John Brusniak, president of the National Association of Property Tax Attorneys, a professional group. Those fees can differ by locality, he says.
Hiring a Firm
Finally, some homeowners choose to hire a property-tax consultant to do the appeal. These firms typically charge a flat, upfront property-analysis fee to determine whether they want to take your case, in addition to any filing fees.
Yet some appraisal offices frown on such services. “We give you the ammunition to beat us up,” says Bernardo J. Garcia, director of legal services at the Harris County Appraisal District in Texas, which includes Houston. He says his office gives people a copy of all the comparable-sales data they need to use to make an assessment. The appeals process is straightforward, he adds.
Property-tax consultants say they can often get customers a better deal—and save them time spent in making court appearances.
“We know all the ins and outs of the process,” says Paul Henry, a principal at Tax Reduction Services in Greenport, N.Y. “The process is cumbersome and riddled with paperwork that needs to be precise, so petitions are not thrown out.”
Experts warn that homeowners should be cautious. “One must always be wary of scams in these areas,” says Richard Roll, founder of the American Homeowners Association, a Stamford, Conn., homeowners’ membership group. He recommends getting local references and checking the consultant’s credentials before signing a contract.
In the last three years, the Better Business Bureau has received nearly 650 complaints nationwide about property-tax consultants. More than half of the complaints involve advertising and refund problems.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
North Dakota voters to eliminate property tax
nytimes.comMaybe it is time to move there.
Property taxes are one of the most regressive and anti-private property taxes out there. Basically the government is saying you don’t own your land. Property taxes say “government owns your land we are just leasing it to you.” Because if you don’t pay your property tax the government will confiscate your land by force.
The Silver Lining on the Decline in Real Estate Prices
Home prices are still going down in many markets. But your property-tax bill might well be going up.
The good news: There are ways to fight back.
Property taxes across the U.S. have increased by nearly 20% from 2005 to 2009, the most recent data available, according to an April study by the National Association of Home Builders. The median annual real-estate-tax payment was $1,917 in 2009, up from $1,614 in 2005.
Over the same period, home prices in major urban centers fared badly, decreasing 31%, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index.
Property taxes don’t move in lockstep with home values because local governments typically don’t measure values every year and some have limits on annual property-tax increases, says Natalia Siniavskaia, a housing-policy economist at the home-builders group. That means your current property taxes might reflect your home’s value when the market was healthier. Property-tax adjustments lag behind changes in home prices by an average of three years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
There isn’t much you can do about your property-tax rate, which is set by your local government. But homeowners can often get their assessment lowered if they appeal to their local assessor. That can translate into a lower tax bill.
More than half of homeowners are paying too much in property taxes, says Jim Kane, Chicago-based managing director of True Partners Consulting, a tax advisory firm.
One key to a successful appeal: fact-checking the assessor’s work. About half of all successful appeals come from homeowners pointing out an error in the assessor’s description of their home, Mr. Kane says. Such errors can drive up a home’s value.
To understand how these mistakes happen—and how to correct them—it is important to keep in mind how your local government assigns a value to your home.
Local officials can assign a value to your home using house-by-house appraisals, computer models or even aerial photos to gauge how many rooms are in a house or whether there has been a new addition, such as a deck or swimming pool. But it’s difficult to look closely at each home every year, so officials will also update home values based on recent home sales in your area.
The superficial nature of the assessments means details can be overlooked.
“We can be wrong,” says Dusty Rhodes, elected auditor and assessor in Hamilton County, Ohio, which includes Cincinnati.
That is what Lynne Weaver, a Phoenix retiree, discovered after her property-tax bill started climbing. To figure out why, she says, she went on the Maricopa County, Ariz., assessor’s website and discovered that a handful of her neighbors’ homes were assessed for as much as $205,000 less than her own property.
Ms. Weaver says she didn’t think the number was accurate because her neighbors’ homes were similar to hers in construction and acreage, but had backyard pools and other amenities. Her home had “grass and flowers” in the backyard and an unfinished basement, she says.
She appealed her assessment nearly half a dozen times over the course of six years before she stumbled on the problem: The assessor had incorrectly said a room used as an office was 300 square feet larger than it actually was.
Armed with that knowledge, she successfully lowered her property assessment by 45% to $390,000 in 2010 from $709,715 in 2009. The lower assessment cut her 2010 property-tax billto $3,257 from $5,597 in 2009. Ms. Weaver, who had already been advocating for cuts to local property taxes, says the experience of appealing her own assessment galvanized her even more. She runs a group that has tried unsuccessfully to get a measure on the state ballot to cap property taxes.
Paul Petersen, spokesman for the Maricopa County assessor’s office, says errors of that magnitude are uncommon. But errors can happen, he says, and that’s why “we expect the public to help us be more accurate” and appeal if it’s warranted. About one-fourth of residential property appeals result in a lower assessment, Mr. Petersen says, adding that the county reassesses properties every year to help reflect the changing market.
While Ms. Weaver fought back herself, you also can hire a tax lawyer or a property-tax consultant to do the legwork for you—if you are willing to pay up.
Some parts of the country have a stronger tradition of residents appealing property assessments because of higher tax rates or more-frequent assessments. Some states reappraise property values each year, while others do it once every several years. You might want to appeal your property value after each reassessment.
In Chicago, properties are assessed every three years. Residents appealed an average of one-fourth of reassessments during the past decade, according to data from the Cook County, Ill., assessor. An average of 18% of those appeals per year resulted in a decrease in the homeowner’s assessed property value.
Local officials say they expect appeals from property owners if it’s warranted, so don’t be shy. “The appeal process is part of the mass appraisal process,” says Burt Manning, chief appraiser for Fulton County, Ga., which includes most of Atlanta.
Here’s how to do it:
Checking Your Assessment
Most local governments allow residents roughly 10 days to 30 days to appeal their assessment after notification. To figure out the timeframe in your county or city, check your reassessment notice, which is typically sent in the mail, or call your local assessor’s office.
Ms. Weaver’s case points to the importance of ensuring your assessor has accurately described your property. To do this, you will need to review what is called the “property record card,” a summary of the characteristics of your home. Make sure there isn’t an extra bedroom, say, or three bathrooms instead of two. Extra features can drive up the value of your home. You can usually find a description of your home on your assessor’s website. If not, you might have to visit the assessor’s office.
If you have made substantial changes to your home—a refurbished basement or new marble counter tops—you might want to be a bit wary of an appeal, since it could have the unintended effect of driving your assessment even higher. But property-assessment advisers say you shouldn’t be too careful. If you feel your property is being overvalued by more than a few thousand dollars, it usually is worth the effort to appeal, they say.
Similarly, look closely at the assessor’s description of your home to ensure that any characteristics that would drive down the value of your property—repeated flooding in your backyard, for instance, or a leaky roof that would be expensive to replace—are duly noted.
How to Appeal
The key to a successful appeal of your property value, experts say, is comparable sales, or “comps.”
In many states, the appeal process is like a less-formal court hearing, where property owners present their case to several local officials or representatives. The simplest way to convince officials that your property has been incorrectly valued is to provide evidence of the sales price of homes that are comparable to yours, in terms of square footage, amenities and neighborhood characteristics. Bring sale documents and photos of your property, as well as the comps.
The websites of many assessors’ offices include recent property sales, or you can check sales prices in your newspaper or with a local real-estate broker. Experts caution homeowners not to rely on home-value data from Zillow Inc. or other online real-estate information and search firms, since their figures aren’t official and are unlikely to stand up as evidence in an appeal.
For purposes of comparison, you should consider only “arm’s length” sales, meaning a sale between two parties who don’t know each other. A sale between two people who do know each other could result in a lower price and is unlikely to be accepted in an appeal. Check for the same last name on sales documents as a clue that a sale isn’t arm’s length.
The appeal board also might question a home that sells quickly in a bad market, which could indicate an owner who needed to sell in a hurry. That means that sale might not work as a comp. Some property-assessment advisers say you can even use foreclosed homes, if those are the only sales in your area.
Assessors choose a specific date when measuring a home’s value, which might be several months before you receive your assessment notice. If your assessor set values on Oct. 1, 2010, and you are looking at home sales in June and July 2011, an appeal board is likely to reject those comps.
The weak housing market means there aren’t as many people selling their homes, making it difficult in some places to find comparable sales.
If that happens, you might consider hiring a professional appraiser to value your home. The average appraisal ranges from $350 to $600 for a typical single-family home, according to the Appraisal Institute, a professional association. Appraisers typically charge by the hour to appear at an appeal hearing. (To find an appraiser, go to www.appraisalinstitute.org and search by ZIP Code.)
Another option is to hire a lawyer who specializes in property-tax appeals. That is what Al Hollander did when he bought a house in Springfield Township, N.J., and realized that he was paying higher taxes than a nearby house that sold for about $35,000 more.
Mr. Hollander bought his home for $465,000 in May 2010. It is on 1½ acres and has five bedrooms and 3½ baths. But a nearby house, which sold for about $500,000 in the summer of 2009 and is on 2.2 acres with a swimming pool, paid $1,200 less in 2009 property taxes, he says.
Mr. Hollander, a physician’s assistant, hired a friend who is a property-tax lawyer to lower his assessment. “What do I know about property taxes? I go to an expert,” the 42-year-old Mr. Hollander says.
The lawyer helped Mr. Hollander lower his assessment from $605,000 to $550,000 for 2011 through an informal hearing with the assessor’s office. The cut reduced his 2011 property taxes to $12,000 from $13,100 in 2010. For 2012, his assessment decreased to $500,000, meaning additional tax savings of $1,100. Springfield Township officials were unable to be reached for comment.
Property-tax lawyers often work on contingency and charge 30% to 50% of the tax savings for each year, says John Brusniak, president of the National Association of Property Tax Attorneys, a professional group. Those fees can differ by locality, he says.
Hiring a Firm
Finally, some homeowners choose to hire a property-tax consultant to do the appeal. These firms typically charge a flat, upfront property-analysis fee to determine whether they want to take your case, in addition to any filing fees.
Yet some appraisal offices frown on such services. “We give you the ammunition to beat us up,” says Bernardo J. Garcia, director of legal services at the Harris County Appraisal District in Texas, which includes Houston. He says his office gives people a copy of all the comparable-sales data they need to use to make an assessment. The appeals process is straightforward, he adds.
Property-tax consultants say they can often get customers a better deal—and save them time spent in making court appearances.
“We know all the ins and outs of the process,” says Paul Henry, a principal at Tax Reduction Services in Greenport, N.Y. “The process is cumbersome and riddled with paperwork that needs to be precise, so petitions are not thrown out.”
Experts warn that homeowners should be cautious. “One must always be wary of scams in these areas,” says Richard Roll, founder of the American Homeowners Association, a Stamford, Conn., homeowners’ membership group. He recommends getting local references and checking the consultant’s credentials before signing a contract.
In the last three years, the Better Business Bureau has received nearly 650 complaints nationwide about property-tax consultants. More than half of the complaints involve advertising and refund problems.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
The Silver Lining on the Decline in Real Estate Prices
Home prices are still going down in many markets. But your property-tax bill might well be going up.
The good news: There are ways to fight back.
Property taxes across the U.S. have increased by nearly 20% from 2005 to 2009, the most recent data available, according to an April study by the National Association of Home Builders. The median annual real-estate-tax payment was $1,917 in 2009, up from $1,614 in 2005.
Over the same period, home prices in major urban centers fared badly, decreasing 31%, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index.
Property taxes don’t move in lockstep with home values because local governments typically don’t measure values every year and some have limits on annual property-tax increases, says Natalia Siniavskaia, a housing-policy economist at the home-builders group. That means your current property taxes might reflect your home’s value when the market was healthier. Property-tax adjustments lag behind changes in home prices by an average of three years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
There isn’t much you can do about your property-tax rate, which is set by your local government. But homeowners can often get their assessment lowered if they appeal to their local assessor. That can translate into a lower tax bill.
More than half of homeowners are paying too much in property taxes, says Jim Kane, Chicago-based managing director of True Partners Consulting, a tax advisory firm.
One key to a successful appeal: fact-checking the assessor’s work. About half of all successful appeals come from homeowners pointing out an error in the assessor’s description of their home, Mr. Kane says. Such errors can drive up a home’s value.
To understand how these mistakes happen—and how to correct them—it is important to keep in mind how your local government assigns a value to your home.
Local officials can assign a value to your home using house-by-house appraisals, computer models or even aerial photos to gauge how many rooms are in a house or whether there has been a new addition, such as a deck or swimming pool. But it’s difficult to look closely at each home every year, so officials will also update home values based on recent home sales in your area.
The superficial nature of the assessments means details can be overlooked.
“We can be wrong,” says Dusty Rhodes, elected auditor and assessor in Hamilton County, Ohio, which includes Cincinnati.
That is what Lynne Weaver, a Phoenix retiree, discovered after her property-tax bill started climbing. To figure out why, she says, she went on the Maricopa County, Ariz., assessor’s website and discovered that a handful of her neighbors’ homes were assessed for as much as $205,000 less than her own property.
Ms. Weaver says she didn’t think the number was accurate because her neighbors’ homes were similar to hers in construction and acreage, but had backyard pools and other amenities. Her home had “grass and flowers” in the backyard and an unfinished basement, she says.
She appealed her assessment nearly half a dozen times over the course of six years before she stumbled on the problem: The assessor had incorrectly said a room used as an office was 300 square feet larger than it actually was.
Armed with that knowledge, she successfully lowered her property assessment by 45% to $390,000 in 2010 from $709,715 in 2009. The lower assessment cut her 2010 property-tax billto $3,257 from $5,597 in 2009. Ms. Weaver, who had already been advocating for cuts to local property taxes, says the experience of appealing her own assessment galvanized her even more. She runs a group that has tried unsuccessfully to get a measure on the state ballot to cap property taxes.
Paul Petersen, spokesman for the Maricopa County assessor’s office, says errors of that magnitude are uncommon. But errors can happen, he says, and that’s why “we expect the public to help us be more accurate” and appeal if it’s warranted. About one-fourth of residential property appeals result in a lower assessment, Mr. Petersen says, adding that the county reassesses properties every year to help reflect the changing market.
While Ms. Weaver fought back herself, you also can hire a tax lawyer or a property-tax consultant to do the legwork for you—if you are willing to pay up.
Some parts of the country have a stronger tradition of residents appealing property assessments because of higher tax rates or more-frequent assessments. Some states reappraise property values each year, while others do it once every several years. You might want to appeal your property value after each reassessment.
In Chicago, properties are assessed every three years. Residents appealed an average of one-fourth of reassessments during the past decade, according to data from the Cook County, Ill., assessor. An average of 18% of those appeals per year resulted in a decrease in the homeowner’s assessed property value.
Local officials say they expect appeals from property owners if it’s warranted, so don’t be shy. “The appeal process is part of the mass appraisal process,” says Burt Manning, chief appraiser for Fulton County, Ga., which includes most of Atlanta.
Here’s how to do it:
Checking Your Assessment
Most local governments allow residents roughly 10 days to 30 days to appeal their assessment after notification. To figure out the timeframe in your county or city, check your reassessment notice, which is typically sent in the mail, or call your local assessor’s office.
Ms. Weaver’s case points to the importance of ensuring your assessor has accurately described your property. To do this, you will need to review what is called the “property record card,” a summary of the characteristics of your home. Make sure there isn’t an extra bedroom, say, or three bathrooms instead of two. Extra features can drive up the value of your home. You can usually find a description of your home on your assessor’s website. If not, you might have to visit the assessor’s office.
If you have made substantial changes to your home—a refurbished basement or new marble counter tops—you might want to be a bit wary of an appeal, since it could have the unintended effect of driving your assessment even higher. But property-assessment advisers say you shouldn’t be too careful. If you feel your property is being overvalued by more than a few thousand dollars, it usually is worth the effort to appeal, they say.
Similarly, look closely at the assessor’s description of your home to ensure that any characteristics that would drive down the value of your property—repeated flooding in your backyard, for instance, or a leaky roof that would be expensive to replace—are duly noted.
How to Appeal
The key to a successful appeal of your property value, experts say, is comparable sales, or “comps.”
In many states, the appeal process is like a less-formal court hearing, where property owners present their case to several local officials or representatives. The simplest way to convince officials that your property has been incorrectly valued is to provide evidence of the sales price of homes that are comparable to yours, in terms of square footage, amenities and neighborhood characteristics. Bring sale documents and photos of your property, as well as the comps.
The websites of many assessors’ offices include recent property sales, or you can check sales prices in your newspaper or with a local real-estate broker. Experts caution homeowners not to rely on home-value data from Zillow Inc. or other online real-estate information and search firms, since their figures aren’t official and are unlikely to stand up as evidence in an appeal.
For purposes of comparison, you should consider only “arm’s length” sales, meaning a sale between two parties who don’t know each other. A sale between two people who do know each other could result in a lower price and is unlikely to be accepted in an appeal. Check for the same last name on sales documents as a clue that a sale isn’t arm’s length.
The appeal board also might question a home that sells quickly in a bad market, which could indicate an owner who needed to sell in a hurry. That means that sale might not work as a comp. Some property-assessment advisers say you can even use foreclosed homes, if those are the only sales in your area.
Assessors choose a specific date when measuring a home’s value, which might be several months before you receive your assessment notice. If your assessor set values on Oct. 1, 2010, and you are looking at home sales in June and July 2011, an appeal board is likely to reject those comps.
The weak housing market means there aren’t as many people selling their homes, making it difficult in some places to find comparable sales.
If that happens, you might consider hiring a professional appraiser to value your home. The average appraisal ranges from $350 to $600 for a typical single-family home, according to the Appraisal Institute, a professional association. Appraisers typically charge by the hour to appear at an appeal hearing. (To find an appraiser, go to www.appraisalinstitute.org and search by ZIP Code.)
Another option is to hire a lawyer who specializes in property-tax appeals. That is what Al Hollander did when he bought a house in Springfield Township, N.J., and realized that he was paying higher taxes than a nearby house that sold for about $35,000 more.
Mr. Hollander bought his home for $465,000 in May 2010. It is on 1½ acres and has five bedrooms and 3½ baths. But a nearby house, which sold for about $500,000 in the summer of 2009 and is on 2.2 acres with a swimming pool, paid $1,200 less in 2009 property taxes, he says.
Mr. Hollander, a physician’s assistant, hired a friend who is a property-tax lawyer to lower his assessment. “What do I know about property taxes? I go to an expert,” the 42-year-old Mr. Hollander says.
The lawyer helped Mr. Hollander lower his assessment from $605,000 to $550,000 for 2011 through an informal hearing with the assessor’s office. The cut reduced his 2011 property taxes to $12,000 from $13,100 in 2010. For 2012, his assessment decreased to $500,000, meaning additional tax savings of $1,100. Springfield Township officials were unable to be reached for comment.
Property-tax lawyers often work on contingency and charge 30% to 50% of the tax savings for each year, says John Brusniak, president of the National Association of Property Tax Attorneys, a professional group. Those fees can differ by locality, he says.
Hiring a Firm
Finally, some homeowners choose to hire a property-tax consultant to do the appeal. These firms typically charge a flat, upfront property-analysis fee to determine whether they want to take your case, in addition to any filing fees.
Yet some appraisal offices frown on such services. “We give you the ammunition to beat us up,” says Bernardo J. Garcia, director of legal services at the Harris County Appraisal District in Texas, which includes Houston. He says his office gives people a copy of all the comparable-sales data they need to use to make an assessment. The appeals process is straightforward, he adds.
Property-tax consultants say they can often get customers a better deal—and save them time spent in making court appearances.
“We know all the ins and outs of the process,” says Paul Henry, a principal at Tax Reduction Services in Greenport, N.Y. “The process is cumbersome and riddled with paperwork that needs to be precise, so petitions are not thrown out.”
Experts warn that homeowners should be cautious. “One must always be wary of scams in these areas,” says Richard Roll, founder of the American Homeowners Association, a Stamford, Conn., homeowners’ membership group. He recommends getting local references and checking the consultant’s credentials before signing a contract.
In the last three years, the Better Business Bureau has received nearly 650 complaints nationwide about property-tax consultants. More than half of the complaints involve advertising and refund problems.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
Greece in revolt over property tax
Few measures have elicited more anger – or ingenious forms of revolt – than the property tax announced by Greek ministers to plug a budget black hole that might have gone unnoticed had Greece’s plight not threatened the entire eurozone.
In the three months since the government conceived of boosting revenues by including the household duty in electricity bills, local mayors, leftist politicians, unions, lawyers, property owners and the public power corporation have all vowed to do whatever they can to stop the law.
Already suffering wage cuts, benefit losses and tax increases, many have said that even if they wanted to, they simply couldn’t cough up.
Michigan House repeals personal property tax
freep.comThe Lansing Godzilla, in its lame-duck death throes, continues its rampage.
Using Property Tax Living the Greek Dream
Killer Property Taxes and Rules in Greece Press Release by Aris Floros.
Original Release Source is here: Using The Property Tax To Live the Greek Dream
Aristeidis Floros - Property Tax Usage and Greek Public Companies Support PlanAristeidis Floros shares his view on Greek political and financial and social crisis in Greece after the new obligations that are imposed to Greek householders about the heavy property taxes, salary cuts, increased VAT and solidarity taxes.
On April 2012 the Greek Ministry of Finance introduced an amendment to the initial law, regarding the imposition of the property tax to all property owners, offering the opportunity to the Public Power Company (DEI) not to convey to the Ministry the money collected through the electricity invoices for March and April 2012.
The law modification allows PPC to actually use the money to support its financial obligations for a period of two months and then convey the money to the Ministry of Finance.
It is clear that this measure was taken to support the difficult financial situation that PPC faces the last three months, showing in a very provocative way the preferential treatment that the public electricity company has by the Government!
Further to the above this extension to the payment deadline was not followed with an extension to the payment deadline that the property owners have, despite their severe financial difficulties.
It is commonly stated that this tax is a very severe measure, especially due to very difficult financial situation that most of the Greek households, face as well as for the specific social groups that need special protection. Greek households already struggling under the weight of increased VAT, salary cuts, and solidarity taxes.
Many business owners are on the verge of closure and the new tax is a new “pain” for all of them. However all property owners have to pay the first installment regardless of the errors in the calculation of the tax, or whether they belong to the weaker social groups, whose payments will be cancelled in the future. In case the tax is not paid within the deadline defined by the law, the power supply is to be cut off.
The specific tax, as well as many other measures were imposed to Greek citizens as a return for IMF “help”. And somebody would have thought that in this situation, the “sacrifices” Greek citizens make at least go towards the right direction. But it turns out that one of the most controversial taxes, the property tax, instead of being conveyed to the Greek state, is been pocketed and exploited by the Greek Public Power Company - DEI.
The Greek dream for PPC trade unions, as it appears through all these actions is still alive and is subsidized by the money of the Greek citizens. They can continue spending money for traveling abroad without even presenting the relevant tax documents, for luxury dinners and meetings, for subsidizing their salaries and other allowances.
Maybe it’s time that the IMF and the EU dropped their obsession with reducing Greece’s minimum wage or eliminating salaries, and applies policies that fight corruption and tax evasion among political parties. Their attention should be on consolidating the public sector. Who is responsible for this new law amendment? Who signed for it and under what perspective?
Note for the Property Tax
The new tax was imposed to all property owners on October 2011 by the Greek government, with the aim to collect extra money and support its difficult financial position. The property tax is collected through the electricity bills that are sent through DEI and other private energy suppliers.
The tax was imposed for 2011, 2012 and 2013 and through this the Ministry of Finance was expected to raise an estimated of 2-3 billion euro to qualify the next bailout tranche and avert default.
Aristeidis Floros is also the author at http://aristeidis-floros-wisdom.tumblr.com/
Spring Means Rain, Green Beer and Taxes
It’s the height of tax season over here. We thought January was our hardest month until 2010. Now we think February is the roughest…which means March should bring us a bit of relief!
Retirement funding for 2009:
You have until your tax return is filed to fund your plan. Have you done it? Remember, you can give it to the government or you can pay yourself. It’ll cost you in the short run, but in the long run, you come out ahead. Think of it this way: if you save $300 for yourself, you save $100 tax. Don’t put the money in a qualified retirement plan unless you can live without it until retirement though: the penalty for early withdrawal hurts ya’ bad.
If we prepared your tax estimates during 2009 including a retirement contribution, you’ll owe more tax than we told you you’d owe if you don’t fund your plan.
Last – if your company has a 401k plan, we are doing the work on your staff census, and the discrimination testing required by the Dept. of Labor to help you figure out how much you must fund. We’re also looking at your cash, and figuring how much you can fund. This gets complicated: send all that scary mail to us.
Tax returns due 3/15:
If you have a corporate return due March 15th, it’s well under way. If you haven’t already, you’ll receive documents to sign and/or mail any day now. Please cooperate with us and get those things back right away. If you want to discuss your return with us, or with the CPA, do it without delay.
Property tax due 4/10:
Early warning. This is a real estate tax – so if you own real property, your payment is due April 10th. You should have already received the bill from the county, and this is a tax deductible payment. Save the receipt!
That’s the big stuff. Some of you are scheduled for budget/planning meetings: you know who you are. Don’t shirk.
Happy St. Paddy’s Day!
Nassau Property tax #2 in nation
wgrz.comnot surprised, not surprised at all
