Broward County Property Tax Bills Will Start Going Out August 13th

TRIM Notices of proposed 2010 property taxes start going out on August 13th.  This week taxing authorities will tell the property appraisers office of their proposed 2010 rates.  These are proposed tax rates, not the final ones.  However they normally are right on.

If you are purchasing a home right now you will still have to go off of the 2009 tax rates until the 1^st week in November.   So if the current tax rate is lower we will use that one and visa versa.

When you are buying a property that will be your primary residence your Homestead Exemption won’t kick in until the end of the following year, the end of 2011, because you pay taxes in arrears.  At that time your property will be assessed off of your purchase.  Notice I say your purchase and not your purchase price.  Here is the disclaimer from Broward County Property Appraiser’s site:

Note: If your purchase price was from a FORECLOSURE not sold on the open market through the MLS listings, your actual purchase price is not considered a “qualified sale” and does not reflect the just (market) value used for determining your assessment. If this applies, you should enter the reasonable market price of a sale of a similar home in a similar area sold on the open market to more accurately use this calculator. And, for all users, remember this is only an estimate based upon the millage rates of the current tax year. As the Property Appraiser does NOT set the tax rates, we cannot give any guidance as to whether the property tax rates in your area will go up or down in the next tax year.

If you would like to estimate what your taxes will be you can go to http://bcpa.net/TaxCalc.asp.  For information on filing your Homestead and to file your Homestead to go http://bcpa.net/homestead.asp.

Florida Save Our Homes Amendment

I am just going to copy and paste the info from the article because I am not an expert when it comes to this.

The 1992 amendment to the Florida Constitution – which limits annual assessment increases to 3 percent – has resulted in “sometimes dramatically disproportionate tax burdens” among homeowners and is clearly “an unintended consequence of what has come to be regarded as a flawed policy,” the organization said.

Now, a new constitutional amendment, Amendment 3, will appear on the ballot in November. If approved, it would reduce that 10 percent limit to 5 percent, potentially crippling Florida’s economic future, the TaxWatch report says. It compares that scenario to the way that Proposition 13 has contributed to the near-bankrupting of California.

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2010/03/15/daily29.html 

Refinancing & Property Taxes

I get this question a lot, “if I refinance will my property taxes go up?”  The answer is no.  Also, when it comes to a purchase, your property taxes are based on your purchase price and/or assessed value.  It is not what your appraisal comes in at. 

The article below has a lot of good information such “Borrowing allowed you to defer the tax consequences until you sold. However, when you did sell, the proceeds would go to pay off the debt, leaving you with little cash to cover the tax consequences. You’ll probably be in a similar position when you sell the rental property.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Will-a-refinance-result-in-brn-4110835184.html?x=0

Tax Bills Causing Problems For Homeowners

We all saw this coming.  “Hard times are causing more homeowners to fall behind on their property taxes. But in thousands of cases, they are not responsible to their local governments, but to private companies that charge double-digit interest and thousands of dollars in service fees.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/32461330 

Tips On Petitioning Your Tax Bill

In Florida you can just go onto the county website, click on petition, and pay $15 but this article goes into a lot more detail about it.

 

“There are also a growing number of local and national online services that use automated property-valuation models to help consumers determine whether they may be able to reduce their property taxes. Initial evaluations are often free at these sites, which include EasyTaxFix.com and LowerMyAssessment.com. For a fee of $50 to $100, users can obtain forms with data already filled in and instructions on how to appeal, and a list of recent sales of comparable properties. Ms. Davidson of Bonita used EasyTaxFix.com to help with her appeal.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204423804574290151758305342.html#mod=rss_PJ_Main

Property Tax Appeals

Many all over the US are petitioning their property tax bills and this is hurting local governments.  At the same time, didn’t local governments prosper due to artificially inflated home values?

“Homeowners across the country are challenging their property tax bills in droves as the value of their homes drop, threatening local governments with another big drain on their budgets.  The requests are coming in record numbers, from owners of $10 million estates and one-bedroom bungalows, from residents of the high-tax enclaves surrounding New York City, and from taxpayers in the Rust Belt and states like Arizona, Florida and California, where whole towns have been devastated by the housing bust.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/31747498 

Are Lower Property Taxes A Sign Of A Bottom?

Well property taxes do lag home values, which is great in an appreciating market but bad in a depreciating market.  “As a rule, city and county assessors reappraise property values annually or biannually, using recent sales of comparable homes in the neighborhood to set values. So in areas that have seen significant drops in home prices, appraisals – and thereby property taxes – could also drop.”

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/27/real_estate/property_tax_breaks/index.htm?section=money_realestate 

Lower Your Property-Tax Bill

Below is a great article about petitioning your tax bill

http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2009/04/lower-your-property-tax-bill.html

Lower Your Property-Tax Bill

Below is a great article about petitioning your tax bill

http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2009/04/lower-your-property-tax-bill.html

I just received my property tax bill and it is more than I had expected?

If you feel that the assessed value of your property is too high there is something you can do.  You can petition your tax bill.  How do you go about doing that?  You will need to contact your County’s Property Appraiser’s office.  In Broward County Florida you just log onto http://www.bcpa.net/ and click on “Appeals & Petitions,” pay the $15 filing fee, and follow the rest of the instructions.  It’s that easy.  The article below talks about how more homeowners are doing just that.  What’s the worst that can happen, they say no? 

 

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081212/property_tax_relief.html?.v=2&.pf=real-estate