2017 is a critical year for minimizing your real property tax bills for the next four to six years for real property held in 22 Tennessee counties that are undergoing reappraisal. Tennessee’s largest counties (including Davidson) are all undergoing reappraisal this year. The purpose of the reappraisal, which occurs every four to six years, is to restore equity and hopefully ensure taxpayers are being treated fairly by updating all appraisals to “current market value.”
As you can imagine this is a huge task for each county assessor and, by necessity, the counties must utilize various mass appraisal techniques in order to reappraise all real property in a timely fashion. These mass appraisal techniques will actually, for some taxpayers, cause inequity and lead to a higher than market value being placed on property. Obviously when that occurs, the inequity causes a higher property tax bill than is fair to the taxpayer potentially for the entire four to six year period of the cycle.
During April or May, owners of real estate in these counties will be receiving the 2017 assessment notices by mail. These assessment notices will advise taxpayers of the new reappraised valuation as of January 1, 2017. For taxpayers who hold significant real estate in the counties listed below, we strongly recommend that your 2017 assessment notices and new appraisal values be evaluated for potential appeal opportunity. Unfortunately, the time frame to appeal valuations is fairly short after it is received and, depending on the county, is generally prior to June 1, 2017.
Crosslin’s state and local tax group can evaluate your 2017 real estate appraisal for potential appeal. We will do the initial evaluation and consultation at no charge to you and will make a recommendation on whether an appeal is warranted. If, based on that recommendation, you authorize Crosslin to pursue an appeal; our fee would be based on a percentage of the first year’s actual tax savings. There is no further fee for the other three to five years that you will enjoy the tax savings. If the appeal is unsuccessful and there is no tax savings, there would be no fee charged.
We are limiting this opportunity to only those individual (or collective) properties with valuations over $750,000 as of January 1, 2017. All we need to do this evaluation is to review the county assessment notices that will be mailed to each taxpayer.
Counties undergoing this process include Bledsoe, Bradley, Claiborne, Clay, Cumberland, Davidson, Fayette, Franklin, Giles, Hamilton, Hancock, Henderson, Humphreys, Knox, Louden, Marshall, Sequatchie, Shelby, Smith, Sullican, Unicoi, and Union.
If you have property in one of these counties and would like to discuss your reappraisal, please contact Mark Loftis at 615-320-5500 ext. 472 ormark.loftis@crosslinpc.com.
