Tips On How You Could Lower Your Property Tax Bill
When you own a home, you will pay property taxes for as long as you own it. Those taxes go to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of the city's projects like road repair, sewer maintenance, the city's electrical grid, and even helps fund schools.
It may be possible that your property tax bill may be higher than it needs to be. Property taxes are assigned to each home based on what an assessor thinks of the property. They will go around to each home in the city and take a look at the lot size, house size, and any improvements you have made to the home to determine what property taxes you will pay.
You could potentially have these taxes lowered if you use a property tax services company or hire a property tax consultant to see where any errors may have been made. Here are some tips on lowering your property tax bill.
Review The Assessor's Report
When your home was assessed by an assessor, they will have created a report or a tax card that they then submitted to the government to help determine what the property taxes on your home could be. You might find that your property taxes seem a little high and wonder what the assessor put into their report.
You can review this report or tax card, and in fact, it's a good idea and recommended to do so. You can ask a property tax services company to help you go over your tax card to make sure there are no mistakes listed on it. These errors could lead to you paying a higher amount of property tax than you need to. These assessments often compare your home to your neighbor's and other homes in the immediate area to determine the right tax amount.
You should always compare what the assessor wrote to what your property boundaries actually are and see if they match. Also, ensure that you let the assessor take a look inside your home too, so they can see if you made any improvements so they don't automatically assign you a higher tax amount because they assume you did.
Don't Do Any Building Prior To An Assessment
For the most part, you will be notified of an upcoming property assessment of your home. You may have planned to build a shed, or a new garage, or even put an inground pool on your property. If you know you have an assessment in the next little while, wait before you do any building of permanent structures on the property until after the assessment is done.
Any extra structures or buildings on the property besides the house will increase your property tax bill. Before you begin construction on any planned building or pool, contact a property tax services company to go over with you the potential increase in your property taxes if you go ahead with the build. This could help ensure you don't pay more taxes than you need to.