By now a lot of folks have received their property tax statements and are probably most surprised by the lower value of their property and the higher taxes.
We heard of one case where a farmer said their taxes went up 100 percent.
The values are confusing because they compare last year's "market" value, a close proximity to the real value of your property and this year's tax value, which is not really a "market" value.
There's a sliding scale by which the new property tax law put into place by state lawmakers reduces your property value, but for tax purposes only.
For a home value of $76,000, the new law reduces the value of the property for tax purposes by about $30,000. For a $150,000 home, the new law reduces the value of the property for tax purposes by about $24,000.
Again, the value shows up as a value for tax purposes, but it's not very clear to most folks. So a lot of folks are looking at a value and seeing their home or business has declined in value.
In many cases, taxes also will go up, even if the local government did not change their rates or levies one bit.
The Legislature did this because they eliminated that tax credit they provided local governments, known as market value tax credit.
But the bottom line is they still cut tax relief. The market value credit was worth about $261 million in tax relief state wide, and they replaced with the exclusion credit, but that had the impact of lowering overall county tax bases.
So if they tax base is lower and the county's levy stays the same, taxes still go up in many, many cases.
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And depending on the assessors office, the "market" value may not be all that accurate since "similar" homes have not been selling or on the market in the past few years. When was the last time assessors looked at true market value based on sales or are these just estimates?
ReplyDeleteIt's my understanding that almost all of county's values are estimates based on a once over of your property, sometimes outside, sometimes inside in out, every four years.
ReplyDeleteIf you want a true market assessment, you would probably have to hire an assessor who would then do "comparables" if there is such a thing.
It's not clear on the statements, that the new figure really isn't a "market figure" but one "manufactured" by well-meaning legislators.