You And Your Property Tax Bill - The Illusion and The Reality

The property tax is inherently unfair as a general concept.  It is even worse in the specific implementation everywhere.

Not based on the ability to pay.   (Not based on income)

Not based on the ability to pay.  (Not based on equity)

Not based on the ability to pay now.  (Once paid in an after harvest timeframe, the timing makes little sense. It's just that lenders collect it throughout the year for many people - otherwise it would be even more unpopular.)

Not capable of being assessed equitably.  (Judgement calls aplenty.)

" illusion that your assessment should be fair and equitable."

That is something that is shared by most homeowners today.

Barrie,

This is a good series. And, I appreciate the fact that you have all the others linked. It will serve as a nice resource center when something comes up.

Brian

Taxpayers in my area face a similiar problem - they need to appeal the assessed value and they need to understand the DATE of the valuation.  We are on a time lag and most homeowners are clueless as to how this works.  We have our second tax installment due on April 10th and the assessed value tied to that payment is January 1, 2009.  How confusing especially when we had significantly declining values!

All taxing-authorities are in a bind, the likes of which we haven't seen in a lonnnnnnnng time.  Homeowners will have to be proactive if they hope to pry some of their tax dollars from the fingers of the tax man this year.

Congratulations on the Member Spotlight Barrie.

Also, thanks for the "heads-up" on the newletter featured blog.

I actually think that they don't PURPOSELY try to confuse the taxpayers with the dates.  I think it makes sense for them to put a stake in the ground for a 'date' so that they can then take the proper snapshot and do the best analysis possible before coming up with the assessment value.  If it's too tight it is more error prone.  From a purely business efficiency standpoint it makes sense.  The downside locally is that when we were in freefall owners kept trying to get new assessments even though the correct value was from more than a year before - certainly not an efficient process for the assessor!

Barrie - It DOES sound like your area is trying to confuse people with shifting dates.  Thankfully here in California we at least don't have the problem of date shifting.  I didn't live here when Prop 13 was passed but I know it was a voter revolt over all kinds of shenanigans with the assessments.  So now we have a process - convoluted - that can at least be followed.  I agree we shouldn't be subject to double-taxation but seems like it does happen.  And I wish it were so easy to see that services are properly allocated to those who wish to pay but it's not easy to do so therefore it's unlikely to happen.