More Money in Your Pocket? Reduce Your Property Taxes--Try These Tips.
Posted: Tuesday, July 21, 2009
by Steve Kovacs
The Kovacs Perspective
The National Taxpayers Union says nearly 60% of homes in the United States are over-assessed. This means millions of homeowners are overtaxed and paying too much money to the government.
Property taxes are based on our home's real property value. A number of factors including its size, number of total rooms, number of bathrooms and area market value all play a factor to determine that "real value".
Just as a boom affects how much you pay, a down turn in the real estate market affects it also. With a down turn, you will pay less tax. In the US , we have had drastic drops in home values and consequently, the odds are good you should be paying less than in the past. However, due to the recent major loss in property values nationwide, many county tax assessors are struggling to keep up with deflating property values.
So what should you do? Here are some tips:
1. Do not use services that offer to do the necessary work for you to find out if you are indeed, over taxed. Most likely, you can do it on your own and save money.
2. Contact your county office responsible for assessments by calling them or visiting their website. Then find how to gain access to records of your home or property. Counties, even in the same state are separate entities and may have different processes and procedures. As an example, in my county I can access everything about my home on line.
3. Find out everything listed about your home. You may find that their records are inaccurate and you have been over taxed for years. This is fairly common. If you notice discrepancies such as an extra room, (my home had an extra bathroom listed) find out how to appeal to the county to change your incorrect information and consequently, your tax bill. Most county assessor offices provide appeal-related information free, as well as free instructions and forms. Nationally, about 40 percent of appeals are successful.
4. Get information on at least five neighboring homes that are similar in terms of age, style and features. If the assessments on similar properties are lower by 10% or more, file an appeal based on uniformity.
5. Importantly, verify that you have received any breaks you may be entitled to such as a reduction for seniors, veterans or the disabled. In many States, these are called a Homestead Tax Exemption.
6. Find out if your present real value assessment /taxes reflect the price plunge of the past few years.
If you would like to keep more of your money in your pocket, try doing some research and you may be pleasantly surprised.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Great article. Well done.We have the same (if not worse) problem in the UK. When the government wrote up the property (or council) tax system they set it in bads A-H. With A being a council like house and H being a huge mansion.The people who carried out the grading would get through thousands of houses by driving past and scribbling the band beside the address on a bit of paper.Thanks for explaining how it is in the UK--and thank you for reading.
hi steve,homeowner's taxes are my biggest headache right now.recently divorced, and not having much money, i struggle with how to lower my taxes. after reading this article, i'll look into some ways of lowering them, if possible.thanks for the tips,my best regards,sueI hope you can use one or two of em to help you save some money, I sure hope so. Good luck…and thanks.
Sounds like great advice, SteveThanks for reading Ken and hopefuly it saves someone some cash!Or we could go with Steve Martin's advice. When the tax man knocks on your door tell him, "I Forgot!"
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