Due to changes in state laws there is a new 10% per year assessment increase cap in place for the assessed values for the City, County, and Region portions of your tax bills.  However this cap does not apply to the School Board portion of the bill.

Unfortunately the capping system only affects the value of the property and not the total taxes owed, similar to the way the “Save Our Homes” amendment capped the increase of Homesteaded properties at 3% per year or the CPI, whichever is less.

Thus you may notice that despite the value of your property decreasing or staying the same the taxes you are required to pay has gone up or stayed the same.  See our post If Real Estate Values Have Gone Down, Why Did My Taxes Go Up? for more in depth explanation.

In order to continue to provide the level of service you deserve, we have had to slightly alter our fee structure, because it is now possible to achieve a tax savings on the uncapped School Board Portion of the tax bill, while not achieving a savings on the other portions.  Because of this we are charging 5% more than before on the School Board portion with represents 1/3 of the tax bill and 5% less on the remaining 2/3 of the tax bill.

Please read your appeal agreement to see the exact changes.

EXAMPLE 1 – ASSESSED AND MARKET VALUES ARE NOT EQUAL
Folio Number: 01-1234-56-7980
Tax Authority Millage Preliminary Revised Reduction Savings Rate Fee
School Board 0.007995 $1,500,000 $900,000 $600,000 $4,797 40% $1,919
County/City/Region 0.014997 $1,000,000 $900,000 $100,000 $1,500 30% $450
$6,297 38% $2,369
Original Tax Bill $26,990
Revised Tax Bill $20,693

In this first example Market Value has risen beyond the 10% capped value, and thus our reduction resulted in a large savings for the School Board portion and a small savings in the other portions.  Our fee in this example represents 38% of the achieved savings, but is of smaller amount than the other examples.

EXAMPLE 2 – ASSESSED AND MARKET VALUES ARE EQUAL
Folio Number: 01-1234-56-7980
Tax Authority Millage Preliminary Revised Reduction Savings Rate Fee
School Board 0.007995 $1,500,000 $900,000 $600,000 $4,797 40% $1,919
County/City/Region 0.014997 $1,500,000 $900,000 $600,000 $8,998 30% $2,699
$13,795 33% $4,618
Original Tax Bill $26,990
Revised Tax Bill $20,693

In this example both Market and Assessed Values are the same resulting in a large savings in both the School Board and Other portions of the tax bill.  Our fee in this example represents 33% of the achieved savings.

EXAMPLE 3 – 35% FLAT RATE – PRIOR TO 2010
Folio Number: 01-1234-56-7980
Tax Authority Millage Preliminary Revised Reduction Savings Rate Fee
School Board 0.007995 $1,500,000 $900,000 $600,000 $4,797 35% $1,679
County/City/Region 0.014997 $1,500,000 $900,000 $600,000 $8,998 35% $3,149
$13,795 35% $4,828
Original Tax Bill $26,990
Revised Tax Bill $20,693

In this example both Market and Assessed Values are the same resulting in a large savings in both the School Board and Other portions of the tax bill.  Our fee in this example represents 35% of the achieved savings.  This was our old fee structure which is no longer used.

As you can see from the examples,  in cases where Market and Assessed Values are equal then you will be paying approximately 33% of the achieved savings, less than before.  In cases where Market Value exceeds Assessed Value you will paying 38% of the savings but the fee amount will typically be lower.