I will be blogging about fighting your tax assessment quite a bit the next month.   Tax notices will be coming out next month. With home values falling in Southeastern Michigan you may be able to reduce your tax burden.

Many people do not know how to read their property tax statement.  This is another item they should teach in school but they do not.  It is important and people get confused about the statement.

There are 2 numbers on your Michigan property tax notice.  One is the state equalized value (SEV) and the other is taxable value.  State Equalized value is the 1/2 of the value the local assessor places as the cash value or fair market value of your home.  Taxable value is the actual number that the muncipality uses to figure how much your taxes are.  Taxable value x your Millage rate = amount of taxes you owe.  Normally the taxable value number is lower than the SEV.

Look at your statement.  See the two numbers (Taxable value and SEV).  Sure the assessor thinks your house is worth a lot.  But times both the taxable value and SEV by 2.  The taxable should be lower or equal to the SEV.

In order to make it worthwhile to reduce your taxes, homes in your area should be selling less that the taxable value times 2.  For example.  Your tax statement reads taxable value as $115,500 and the SEV as $163,750.   The assessor thinks your house is worth $325,500 (163,750 x 2) but you are only being taxed on the value of $231,000 (115,500 X 2). In order to reduce your taxes in this instance, homes comparable to yours would have sold less that 231,000.  You need comparables to prove to the board of review and the Michigan tax tribunal that they should reduce your taxes.

 For more on how to fight you taxes, steps and timeline involved in fighting your taxes, and understanding your tax bill go to my website www.russravary.com  The information is in a yellow box on my home page.  Click on the section you want to know more about.

Have a great night!