If you are a Georgia property owner, there is a deadline fast approaching. You have only until April 1 to file your Georgia Property Tax Return, or you lose your initial opportunity to lower your property tax assessment. No one should have to pay more than their fair share, so it's smart to take a look at the valuation process.
There have been major changes to the property tax assessment procedure in Georgia in the past few years, most of them in your favor. But the burden falls on you to initiate the process by filing a form known as the Georgia PT50-R tax return. In short, this is your chance to tell the tax assessor what you believe the actual market value of your property was on January 1 of this year.
Here are the steps you can take if you wish to file a return this year:
• First, you will need a blank copy of the PT50-R Property Tax Return form itself. You can download the state form from my website at Money99.com. That form is provided by the Georgia Department of Revenue and is acceptable to all counties in Georgia.
However, some counties, such as Fulton and DeKalb, prefer that you use their own forms. Either way, it’s up to you. In some counties, such as Gwinnett, you can actually file your return online, which saves you a considerable amount of time.
• Next, you will need to estimate what your home might have sold for on the first day of this year. Because real estate values are fluid, the state has to pick a moment in time to compare everyone’s value. That moment is set by law as January 1 of each tax year.
That means you need only gather the sale values of similar homes that sold during 2012, but not any that sold after the first day of January. My advice is to hire a real estate professional to assist you in this research, because they do this type of work all the time.
They call it a Competitive Market Analysis (or a CMA) because it compares your home with others that have sold in a specific date range and in a specific locale. This process is not the same as an appraisal by a licensed appraiser, but uses much of the same information during the analysis. Specifically, you want comparable sales data for calendar year 2012.
If you have used the agent in the past to buy or sell a home, there’s a good chance the CMA might be provided at no charge. In contrast, a full-blown appraisal might take a couple of weeks and cost several hundred dollars. At this stage, I believe an appraisal is not necessary.
• Now you need to drive to all the homes listed on the CMA, taking color photos of the exteriors and describing their features and locations in relation to your home, comparing the properties. The closer in age, square footage, bedroom and bath count, condition, and location the comparable home is, the more weight it should be given in estimating your home’s value on New Years Day.
One way to approach the task is to calculate the average “dollars per square foot” based on the selling price of homes most similar to yours. Then multiply that number by the square footage of your home to arrive at an estimate of value.
Don’t forget to search vigorously for 2012 sales of bank-owned homes in your neighborhood. These sales are often quite low, and can have a devastating impact on property values. Your tax assessor is now required by law to take such distress sales into consideration when estimating your tax value.
• Finally, fill out the PT50-R Property Tax Return with the dollar amount you believe is fair for Jan. 1, 2013. You can include information you have gathered and attach a summary of your reasons for choosing that value. My advice is keep it to one page.
Choose a value that you can support with sales data. If your returned value is indefensible, no one will take your tax return seriously.
Here’s the key to the process. Your deadline for filing this form is April 1, 2013, which is a Monday. Experience has shown that it’s not smart to wait until the last day. You should either deliver your return in person (and obtain a receipt) or mail it using certified mail and request proof of delivery.
This is not the only chance you will have to protest your tax assessment this year, but this is the first opportunity you have to put your valuation into the queue for review.
You will find a short video on my website explaining the process in further detail and giving you tips on how to get the lowest property tax bill possible.
About the Author
