Understanding Your Property Tax Bill
Posted on March 9, 2008 in the Property taxes category
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The National Taxpayers Union writes that as many as 60% of all homeowners are over-assessed and not in line with their home value. (“How To Fight Property Taxes” 2004 p.1) |
The first thing to understand about your property tax bill is the terminology. Many people look at the tax bill and see a bunch of numbers that have no meaning to them. In reality, they do have a special meaning to the property owner. If you do not understand what the sections on your property tax bill mean, you might not know if this bill is correct or not. Here are some terms that you need to understand when looking at the tax bill.
Fair cash value is what the property can be sold for between two parties without any duress. The assessed value of the property is what the city or county deems a fair assessment of what the property is worth. This is figured out by comparing your property to similar properties in the same area that have sold recently.
Exemption means the removal of said property from the tax base, this is only a part of the assessed value of the property. This might hold true for a church that is only used for religious activities. It may also be due to a homestead exemption. If it is for a home that is considered a religious property for worship only, you can claim the tax exempt status if you only use it for church activities, no personal use.
When you look at the property tax bill, you will see the tax rate. This is the tax due on the property after being calculated with percentages of the tax base. The term taxing district represents the schools and local government that has the levy against your property taxes. The tax code is used for office purposes of the county clerk that represents a combination of taxing structures or bodies.
For those who have a lottery, you will see a section where it states that you are receiving a lottery credit, which will lower your total property tax due. Everyone in the county receives a lottery credit and that is why the credits are usually very small in amounts. The lottery credit will affect your total tax due and not the tax base.
Once you understand the property tax bill terminology, it does make it a little easier to understand the bill. If you do see problems or you have issues with the tax bill, you can request a property tax appeal with the help of a property tax lawyer or consultant. It is always wise to consult an attorney before taking such a step where property tax and the government are concerned.
If you see that your lottery credit is missing or different from others, you might need to question this or question your assessed value of the property. You might even have questions regarding the fair market value of your property. You can always question the bill before paying it, if you do not receive answers that you understand, visit a property tax consultant and see if they can help explain the answers you need to your questions.Â
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7 Responses to “Understanding Your Property Tax Bill”
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Thanks for your clear explanation. It helps me a lot to understand my property tax bill.
We’ve just had an Amendment pass to make our property taxes better.
This is really important as many people are getting hit with really hard tax bills, many adjustments have not kept pace with the decline in home values and it is hurting people. Myself on a few of my properties included.
Great write-up! It would be interesting to see what the breakdown is for cities in Texas and how the property tax varies.
In Utah we experienced an interesting property tax problem. Home prices appreciated so much the past few years, that when taxes were re-assessed they almost doubled for most people. Most people appealed the increase. Now that home prices are declining will they go down again? Probably not…
It seems like there is always a disconnect between market value and assessed value..at least in my area around Hopkinton Massachusetts. The lag time combined with the change in the Real Estate market has really made the gap grow.
This book is great and very informative!