An Easy Guide to Property Tax Appeals

What are Property Tax Appeals?

A Property tax appeal is a written document, filed by a homeowner of a specific jurisdiction and delivered to the underlying local government, to effectively question the individual’s property taxes and coordinating property value.

Property taxes are paid each year by an individual homeowner; the tax is an ad valorem tax based on the assessed value of the individual’s underlying property. The proceeds of the property tax are fundamental for a local government; the funds acquired from the property tax are used to provide a community with public services such as roads, schools, and law enforcement. The property tax, as a result of the exorbitant rates that some states levy, is the fundamental stream of revenue that a local government has the ability of obtaining and subsequently using.

As stated before, the property tax is distributed by a local government agency in accordance with an evaluation of the underlying property’s assessed value; the higher the value of an underlying property the higher the attached property tax. As a result of this relationship, those homeowners who live in costlier homes or pieces of property must satisfy higher property tax obligations.

With the definition of a property tax in mind, property tax appeals are the formalized questioning of an individual’s property tax rate. Property tax appeals are filed by underlying homeowner’s who are unhappy with their attached property tax rates; individuals will file property tax appeals in hopes of having their property tax rates lowered for the subsequent years.

How to Initiate Property Tax Appeals:

The process to engage in property tax appeals will depend on the issuing jurisdiction; each locality will operate under differentiated tax laws. In the majority of jurisdictions in the United States; however, an individual will initiate a property tax appeal by having an independent appraisal on the underlying piece of property to determine if the locality’s tax assessment was too high. When the assessment is made by an independent party, an appraisal report should be finalized; the appraisal report is the foundation of all property tax appeals. Contact a property lawyer to review your case.

The appraisal process will evaluate all intricacies (primarily those that affect worth and property value) attached to the individual’s particular lot of land. This process requires the homeowner to be forthcoming with all information attached to the owner’s property and the surrounding area.

The property tax appraisal, which is established by the independent agency, must be delivered respective board that is responsible for administering and evaluating property tax rates in your particular locality’s area. Along with your tax appraisal report, you will also need to obtain your coordinating tax appeal along with supporting documents to initiate property tax appeals. The majority of jurisdictions have deadlines for filing property tax appeals; understanding your localities specific deadlines and protocol is necessary to expedite the property tax appeal process. Once the appropriate documents are filed, a hearing date, where a review board will evaluate the property tax appeals, will be delivered to you in written form.

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