Published Sunday, March 07, 2010
Property tax return deadline April 1
The Newnan Times-Herald
Most Cowetans won't be getting property assessment notices this summer, so if you think your tax value is too high, your only option is filing a "property tax return" by April 1.
Filing a return is a simple procedure, and the Coweta County Board of Assessors will then look at your property value to see if it should be lowered, remain the same, or even be raised. Filing the return opens the door for an appeal later if you do not agree with any changes that are made.
Property tax returns are filed in the Coweta Tax Commissioner's Office, though the valuation determination is actually made by the county Board of Assessors.
You can download a property tax return form from the Georgia Department of Revenue's Web site, www.etax.dor.ga.gov, or you can get the return from the Coweta County Tax Commissioner's office. For more information, call the assessors office at 770-254-2680 or the tax commissioner's office at 770-254-2670. Be sure to provide both identifying information about your property and a phone number. Often, property owners who file a return forget to put their phone number, which slows down the process.
In filing the return, property owners should explain why they think their value is too high.
But don't just say the economy is bad or your taxes are too high, said Mickey Rogers, chief appraiser and chairman of the Board of Assessors. What's needed are more specific reasons, like problems with the house or with neighbors, or because there's a large number of foreclosures in your area.
"If they are in a neighborhood where there are a lot of foreclosures or sales below value, they need to let us know that," said assessor and Deputy Chief Appraiser Beverly Ward.
The same criteria apply to commercial and industrial properties as well. And your assessed value must have risen in the last few years for it to need to be lowered.
Coweta's appraisals for tax purposes have tended to be on the low side. In fact, the county is currently appealing the state of Georgia's decision to charge Coweta County $122,981 for state taxes that weren't paid in 2008 because the property values were assessed too low.
That money is what the state's quarter mill in property taxes would have brought in had the values been what the state says they are supposed to be.
The 2008 digest was based on property values as of Jan. 1, 2008.
The state also found that Coweta's property values were too low in the 2007 tax digest.
With the state's determination on the 2007 tax digest, "we certainly knew that it was time for us to do a reevaluation," said Mike Marchese, deputy chief appraiser and the third member of the Board of Assessors.
But by then, "the economy was already tanking -- that just was not the time to raise values, frankly," Marchese said. "And if we had, we'd be going back and lowering them all now."
When property values were rising so quickly a few years ago, it was hard for the appraisers to keep up.
Since the tax digest is based on the previous year's value, the value could already be too low by the time the tax digest was created, Rogers said.
"In a decent economy, it's all we can do to keep our heads above water," Marchese said.
The economic issues of the past few years, though, have taken care of that problem.
"The fair market value is down to what we actually had them priced at," Ward said.
If property owners haven't been getting assessment notices "showing your property increasing in value pretty consistently over the last few years, you probably don't have much reason to expect it to go down now," Marchese said. However, "if it has gone up a lot in the last couple of years, you may want to question us."
Properties in "really active areas" are more likely to qualify for an assessment reduction.
Ward recommended that people look at their assessed value in 2005 and this past year. If the values are pretty much the same, they probably won't be lowered.
"If your particular tax bill has the same value, then yours is not one of the properties that has seen an increase," Marchese said. "There have been inflationary adjustments in really active areas, but perhaps not where you might be."
If you're trying to decide whether or not to file a property tax return, the list of recent sales available on the tax assessors office's Web site, cowetatax.com, can be helpful. After you find your property by using one of the various search functions, you can click on "recent sales in neighborhood" or "recent sales in area" to see what similar properties are selling for.
"We must consider foreclosures and bank sales, and we do. But that doesn't mean that we are going to lower the whole subdivision based on one or two foreclosures, if you've still got sales that are at fair market value," Ward said. "If there were two foreclosures that went for less than fair market value, but 10 sales that were at our value, we probably wouldn't lower it."
Foreclosures and short sales in a subdivision will affect property values in that subdivision more than "two or three houses scattered along Gordon Road," Marchese said. "Out in the county, you have to have a much higher volume and concentration" of low-price sales "to really affect that area than you do in a subdivision."
And while sales prices are definitely low, and there are many, many foreclosed homes, "things are still selling for decent prices," Marchese said. "There is not a 'fire sale' by any means."
Anyone who does receive an assessment notice this summer can appeal that valuation, but assessment notices will only be sent out if the property value has changed.
There is currently a three-year moratorium, enacted by the Georgia General Assembly, on assessments rising because of inflation. However, if you make improvements to your property -- such as finishing your basement, adding a pool, or the like -- your assessment can go up.
Sometimes, the assessors don't know about improvements until they go out and look at a property. Occasionally, property owners who have filed a return hoping to get their value lowered actually see the value rise, when appraisers find that improvements have been made.
If you bought a new home or other property in 2009, you won't be receiving an assessment notice unless the value has changed.
