01/26/2017
Hello Dear Friends,
HAVE YOU OR ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LEARNING HOW TO GRIEVE YOUR OWN TAXES?
If you're interested, contact me and I can provide the step by step instructions on how to grieve your OWN taxes. The deadline is March 1, 2017!
WHY YOU MUST FILE A GRIEVANCE EVEN IF YOUR HOME IS VALUED LOW OR PROPERLY
By Jeff Gold on Friday, January 2, 2015
The County Executive has repeatedly told residents that the County will not reassess your homes annually. The Assessment Review Commission answers directly to the County Executive, and its website recommends that you grieve only if you are overassessed. THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE AND HIS COMMISSION ARE CREATING the misperception that you are grieving the "Fair Market Value" of your home, and that there is no need to grieve your assessment if the "Fair Market Value" of your home is accurate or even low.
Unfortunately, what the County does not tell you, is that you are not actually grieving the "Fair Market Value" of your home (although that is part of it) but the "Assessed Value" of your home. The tax rate x each hundred of the "Assessed Value" of your home is what you pay in taxes.
In order to convert your "Fair Market Value" into "Assessed Value" the County multiplies the "Fair Market Value" of your home by .0025. Thus a house with an assigned Fair Market Value of $400,000 has an Assessed Value of $1000.
If the tax rate is $1500 per hundred (pretty close to Bellmore's combined school, library, town and county tax rate) then a $400,000 home with an Assessed Value of $1000 will pay roughly $15,000 in combined taxes. Ouch.
The County website seems to indicate in multiple spots that the .0025 LEVEL OF ASSESSMENT is the same for all properties. THIS IS NOT CAST IN STONE. ARC MAY LOWER THE EQUALIZATION RATE AS MAY SMALL CLAIMS COURT.
IN EACH OF THE PAST FOUR YEARS, THE COUNTY HAS LOWERED THE EQUALIZATION RATE ON EVERY SINGLE HOME THAT FILED A GRIEVANCE. THE LOWERING OF THE EQUALIZATION RATE IS GOOD EVIDENCE THAT THE LEVEL OF ASSESSMENT SHOULD BE REDUCED.
LAST YEAR - FOR THOSE THAT GRIEVED BETWEEN JANUARY 1, 2014 AND MARCH 1, 2014 (AND ANY EXTENDED DATES) RECEIVED A REDUCTION IN THEIR EQUALIZATION RATE FROM .0025 TO .0018.
THAT MEANS THAT IF YOU FILED A GRIEVANCE LAST YEAR ON A $400,000, YOU'D RECEIVE A REDUCTION, IF YOU COULD SHOW THAT IT IS VALUED LESS THAN $488,000. THIS IS MUCH EASIER THAN SHOWING THAT THE HOUSE IS VALUED AT LESS THAN 400,000.
BECAUSE THE COUNTY HAS LOWERED THE EQUALIZATION RATE, AND MAY LOWER THE LEVEL OF ASSESSMENT, EACH OF THE LAST FOUR YEARS, AND ONLY FOR THOSE HOMES THAT FILE GRIEVANCES, YOU MUST GRIEVE EVEN IF YOUR HOME IS PROPERLY VALUED BY THE COUNTY.
