Many of the property tax estimates that will be mailed out to Gwinnett County residents later this week will be wildly inaccurate — and there’s nothing county officials can do about it.
State law dictates that counties send out tax assessment notices every year that show an estimated amount of tax owed by property owners. Those estimates must be based on the previous year’s tax rates.
In Gwinnett, that’s a problem because the county has entered into a legal settlement with its cities that will raise or lower the county millage rates for most residents, depending on where they live and which county services they receive.
Some 260,000 notices start going out in the mail Friday.
“We’ve been talking about (tax rate) changes with the service districts, now we’re mailing out notices that have nothing to do with service districts,” said Aaron Bovos, the county’s chief financial officer. “Then they’ll get a tax bill with the (rate) changes.
“It’ll be confusing for people.”
The notices are not tax bills; those are sent in August. Rather, they are meant to be estimates of what homeowners will pay when the tax bills come due. In addition to the millage rates, the notices show the fair market values of the property being taxed.
Maria Woods, director of the county’s Financial Services, said the fair market value of homes or commercial structures listed on the notices are accurate. And that’s important, because it is the information residents need in deciding whether to appeal their valuation. Residents have 45 days to file an appeal.
But this year, the tax rates listed on the notices are not based on reality: the county has created four new taxing districts — police, fire/EMS, development planning and a special EMS district for Loganville — each of which has an associated rate that will be charged only if residents receive those services.
Only residents owning property in unincorporated Gwinnett and Peachtree Corners are charged the development tax rate.
Some residents will see reductions in their county tax rate if, for example, they live in one of the nine cities that have their own police department. Those residents will not pay taxes that support county police.
Others, who live in unincorporated Gwinnett County, will see a tax hike that is necessary to make up that lost revenue.
The rates will be officially set by commissioners in July. But proposed millage rates in the county’s 2013 budget would have the owner of a $160,000 home in unincorporated Gwinnett paying about $39 more in taxes this year than last.
City residents paying for county services has been a long-time point of contention between the governments, with cities contending that their residents were being taxed for county services they did not use. Last year, the county reached the legal settlement with the cities, which forced the tax rate changes this year.
“I’m sure there will be a lot of phone calls,” to county offices about the notices, commissioner John Heard said.
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