Hats off to the staff of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for proving what those of us in the real estate business have known for several years: that many homes in many metro Atlanta counties carry tax assessments that are more than a little bit overinflated.
In other words, if you own a home in metro Atlanta, there is a good chance you are paying more than your fair share of property taxes.
In Georgia, we refer to property taxes as being paid "ad valorem," or based on the value of that property. And because values in most Georgia neighborhoods have declined over the past couple of years, it is usually up to the owner to recognize that fact and ask for a lower valuation.
But the process is cloaked in secrecy. At each stage of the process, there are hurdles to be overcome, and the road to a lower tax bill is a difficult one. Here are some of the problems associated with attempting to obtain a lower tax valuation:
1. Owners who believe their property may be overvalued must file a "property tax return" between Jan. 1 and April 1 of any year. But in some counties (such as DeKalb), the cutoff date is March 1, and after that date, no returns will be accepted. If you miss the cutoff, you are out of luck for that calendar year.
2. In the past, owners who wanted to lower their valuation needed to find and file a Form PT-50R, which was not an easy task. To further confuse things, if your county tax assessor planned to make a change in your valuation, he or she had to send you a notice of the change. But if no change was anticipated, no notice was mailed. Now, all that has changed. Beginning in this new year, every property owner will receive a notice of tax assessment, even if the value has not changed.
3. The formula for the tax you pay might as well be in another language. Your home's value is called its valuation, but that is multiplied in most counties and municipalities by 40 percent to arrive at your assessment. In some communities (such as Decatur) , the level is 50 percent.
From that number, you are allowed to subtract a dizzying array of exemptions, such as homestead exemption, which are designed to redistribute the tax burden from one group to another. Finally, you multiply the remaining number (not your home's value) by a number called the "millage rate" to determine your tax bill. That rate is a function of the county's financial needs and the current real property tax digest, which you are trying to change. Confused yet?
It's almost as if our elected officials wanted to make it as difficult as possible for owners to lower their taxes.
In the next few weeks, we will examine each step in the tax protest process, and I will guide you on the path to a lower property tax bill.
John Adams is an author, broadcaster and investor. He answers real estate questions on radio station WGKA-AM (920) at noon every Saturday.
For more real estate information or to make a comment, visit www.money99.com.
About the Author
Featured
