Why Should I Look at Appealing my Real Estate Taxes in the form of an Assessment Appeal
Real Estate Tax Refund
Evaluate the accuracy of your assessment as compared to your property:
Over many years of performing assessment appeals we have found property records in the assessment office to sometimes have small errors or significant errors. What these means to you. If we determine the assessment to be incorrect you may be entitled to a refund based on that error in assessment for up to six year of ownership or the length of time you have owned the home whichever is less. Example: Think about this if your real estate taxes are $5,000 per year and we find an error that results in a 15% change in assessment you may be entitled to receive that money for 6 years of ownership! That’s not just a reduction but a check written to you for $4,500!!! Believe it or not these errors in assessment are not that uncommon. I have seen refunds much higher than this!
Tax reduction
Market values in the Northeastern Pennsylvania have fallen from their highs in 2006 and 2007 while some areas are slowly seeing increases again many areas are plagued by foreclosures, high real estate taxes and low market values. Many homes are underwater and valued well below their original purchase price and even their mortgage. This is a sad situation; however, we are here to help. If we complete an appraisal on your home and find the assessed value to be higher than the market value using the predetermined ratio or common level ratio we will appear at your assessment hearing to testify and to present our findings in the appraisal report to help lower your assessment. Example: Again if you are paying $5,000 a year in taxes and our work results in a 30% tax reduction your first year savings alone will be $1,500. Your second year savings will be an additional $1,500 totaling $3,000. We have personally assisted in reductions of $5,000 to $6,000 and higher in the first year! This is not uncommon in certain counties as market values have declined so much that the assessed values are significantly higher than market value when using the predetermined ration or common level ratio.
A real estate tax refund and tax reduction
See how it says above “or both” well yes, that is possible too! Typically when there is a tax refund there will also be a reduction as well based on the error in assessment as well as a reduction based on market value if the assessment is higher than the market value. Example: taking a combination of the two examples above at a $5,000 tax rate if there is an error in assessment that results in a refund of 15% of your taxes for the 6 year period of time and there is a reduced assessment of 30% based on market value not only will your first year savings be $1,500 you would also receive a refund of $750 for the first year alone! That’s savings of $2,2,50 on a total yearly tax liability of $5,000 in the first year not even accounting for the additional 5 years of refunds based on the change of assessment. The numbers add up quickly but a few years of savings in this or similar scenarios can add up to tens of thousands of dollars!!
