Are You Serious, Property Tax Cap is Not Working

Originally posted 2009-12-24 05:00:21. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Visiting and revisiting the property tax issue has become a pet peeve of mine for many reasons:

• Property taxes are too high
• Cities, towns, and states rely to heavily on property taxes so there is no incentives to lower property taxes
• As a result of the property taxes being thought of as an open check, there is a lot of governmental overspending and abuse of monetary privileges.

To add insult to injury on this issue, I found an article today that states that here in Indiana farmers, as well as, homeowners are not getting the anticipated tax relief that the tax cap hope to create due to increases in the assessed value.

I am sorry, an increase in assessed value in a real estate market where a seller can not get what he or she paid just two years ago on a home.

Readers the only way to eliminate this hog wash is to file your property tax appeals.  Here is some helpful links below that will help with that:

• What is Assessed Value and How Does It Influence My Property Tax
• Property Tax Appeal Review (Video 1 of Section 1)
• Evaluation of Property Tax Appeal Findings

Related articles on property taxes

• Rents drop for 128,500 T.O. households (cbc.ca)
• Wis. court won’t review tax ruling against Xerox (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Daley Property Tax ‘Gimmick’ Clears Finance Committee (huffingtonpost.com)
• Property tax debate flares up in P.E.I. (cbc.ca)
• Tax changes mean big hit for P.E.I. homebuyers (cbc.ca)

Effective Anti-Recession Tips for Your Taxes

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Tips for Effective Tax and Personal Anti-Recession Steps

Ask an economist to define recession for you and chances are, they’ll tell you that it is a state of the economy where it declines for at least 6 months.  But that’s just a pretty, picture-book definition.  Recession can affect not just cities and countries, it can also affect individuals and families on a more personal level.  To help you implement tax and personal anti-recession steps, here are things you can do:

Start saving.  Now.

If you have a nest egg stashed somewhere, good for you.  Boost it with more savings.  If you don’t, it’s time to start immediately.  Implement tax and personal savings steps in order to fight the effects of recession.

Cut back on spending immediately.

If you think you need everything you buy, gather your last few weeks’ worth of receipts and rate each item according to necessity.  Chances are, there are a few things there that you’ll realize now that you didn’t really have to buy.

If you see the same pattern in most of your receipts, that’s a sign that you ought to cut back on your expenses and seriously implement a budget or spending plan.  You could, for example, cancel gym memberships and take up running or home exercises instead, buy items on sale instead of at regular prices and put off any large purchases – cars, TVs, video equipment, furniture, etc.

Take big chunks out of your debt.

Your debt can get you down and it will not hesitate to do the same thing to your credit score.  During a recession, a bad credit rating is just not something you want to have.  If you have debts in some form (loans, credit cards, mortgage, etc.), try to pay off as much of your debt as possible.  The earlier you do this, the better it will be for your finances.

Clearing your debts is an excellent anti-recession step because it helps save you money in terms of interest.  It will also give you peace of mind and the personal satisfaction of being in charge.

Consider investing?  Ask a professional.

An experienced financial adviser can help you understand the kind of options you have, given your own resources and the type of risks you are willing to take.  Recession can make investing much more of a challenge, particularly for the uninitiated.  That is why you’ll need all the help you can get in order to find the best places where to put your money in.

Know your deductibles.

Review your tax code for the types of items that you can include in your deductibles.  Remember that not all expenses can be used as deductions.  Only if you can prove them ‘ordinary and necessary’ will the tax man consider them.

Keep all receipts for deductions.

Audit or no audit, it pays to have documents that support your tax claims, especially if they refer to deductions.  Get organized regarding your files, particularly those that pertain to your business or work.  Keep things where you can readily access them and use for reference later.

Consider leasing your business vehicle.

If you want to give yourself better tax performance, a good anti-recession tip to follow is to lease that car of yours.  This will help get you better deductions compared to what you’ll receive if you purchased the vehicle.

When in doubt, always refer to a professional.

The personal anti-recession tips you obtain will usually work seamlessly but some steps involving taxes might have certain limitations.  Before implementing these steps, you might want to consult a basic taxation guide or see an accountant or bookkeeper.  They can guide you on what you can and should do based on your own unique circumstances.

Related articles

• Simple Ways to Recession Proof Your Home (taylorbrownrealestatetalks.com)
• How to Write Off Sales Taxes (turbotax.intuit.com)
• Four Tax Tips to Reduce Your 2006 Taxes (turbotax.intuit.com)
• Video: Federal Tax Deductions for Home Renovation (turbotax.intuit.com)

What to Consider if You Are Thinking of Filing a Property Tax Appeal on a Commercial Property

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Has your Chicago property tax increased? Is your property commercial or industrial?   If it is either you may be interested to know that you may be eligible to file a property tax appeal.

You may be wondering how is my property classified as commercial or industrial.  If a multi-family unit has over 4 units, it is commercial. Commercial property also includes office buildings, industrial property, medical centers, hotels, malls, retail stores, shopping centers, farm land, multifamily housing buildings, warehouses, and garages.    Industrial properties, on the other hand, are factories, warehouses, heavy manufacturing buildings, industrial parks, light manufacturing buildings, and research and development parks.

Once you have ensure that your property meets the above criterias to consider a commercial or industrial property, you must understand several terms that appear on the property tax bill.

You may need to know what is meant by the term assessed value.  Assessed value is determined by converting the fair market value.  To convert the fair market value, the assessor applies the appropriate assessment ratio.  To determine the ratio, the assessor utilizes the internal sales divided by the available rental data for the area.  Then, there is a mass appraisal given for the area.  The mass appraisal for the area is equivalent to the mass appeal for the area.  It is important to note, that the assessor does not do a personal inspection of the property during this determination of assessed value.  However, if an appeal is filed the assessor has to do a personal inspection of the property to determine the error in the value.

The latter is one of the first items that you look at to determine if a property tax appeal is necessary.  It is especially important to determine the latter if you recently purchased the property.

Next, determine if the description of the property is correct on the property tax bill.  If you have an apartment complex and it states that there is a gas station on the bill then there is a reason to file an appeal.

Next, determine if the square footage of the property is correct.  You can look at an appraisal that you may have, the blueprints for the property, or have the property measured by a Realtor or a license appraiser.

Still yet, there may be an error in the lot size.  If the lot size is incorrect then that could also cause the property tax to be more than it needs to be.

If you recently had a decrease in tenants, then you may have a reason to file a property tax appeal.  This is a little tricky because the determination of this reason is if your decrease is 25% or more than the previous year.

If there was a hardship such as, road construction, flood , fire, looting,  new construction, that caused the loss of income and tenants then you may be eligible to file an appeal.  If any of the above reasons are applicable to your property then contact

• the Cook County Assessor Office
• the Cook County Board of Review
•  the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board
•  the Circuit Court of Cook County to file the appeal.

Related articles

• Getting a fair appraisal in a tough market (sfgate.com)
• How to Lower Your Property Taxes (online.wsj.com)
• Businesses upset at fee increase for tax appeals (kansas.com)

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