If you live in Florida and own property, you will receive a TRIM (Truth in Millage) notice in the next 4 to 6 weeks. This notice will give you an estimate of the real estate taxes that the property must pay, based upon the assessment and proposed millage rate.

The assessment (value) is established each year by the County Property Appraiser using mass appraisal techniques. The millage rate is based on funds the city and county government need to operate, divided by the total values of all real property in the County. The real estate taxes for a property is then calculated by multiplying the assessment – say $100,000 times the millage rate of say 19 mills, which is really 1.9% or .019. This equals a tax of $1,900. I sometimes think that the term millage rate is used to confuse the taxpayer. It would be much clearer if it was expressed as a percentage of value. As in you’ll be paying about 2% of your properties value in taxes each and every year.

As a taxpayer, you are only obligated to pay your fair share. And if you think you are unfairly assessed there is something you can do about it.

File An Appeal With Us

Unfortunately the only part of the real estate tax equation which can be appealed is the assessment. However you are always welcome to attend the budget hearings to find out more about that process.

After you receive the TRIM notice, there is usually a period of 25 days to file an appeal petition if you wish to protest the assessment. Then, sometime in the next 12 months there will be a hearing before a Special Magistrate to debate the assessment. As a property owner, you can file the appeal and present your arguments before the Special Magistrate. However, many property owners have found that using a professional is much more effective.

With our 30 plus years of combined knowledge of South Florida real estate valuations as estate brokers, professional appraiser, teacher and economic analysts, we are well equipped to represent property owners in the successful appeal of real estate tax assessments.

WE CAN MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE ONLY PAYING YOUR FAIR SHARE OF REAL ESTATE TAXES.

File An Appeal With Us

Q: I just received my tax bill and the county now offers the option to pay only 75% of the tax bill. How much of my real estate tax bill should I pay?

A: The simple answer is 100%, and not the 75% option.

Here’s a few reasons why this is bad for our clients and tax payers in general.

After the appeal process you will still need to pay the difference between the original bill and the revised bill, PLUS INTEREST at 1% per MONTH.
If the time it takes for them to schedule the hearing exceeds (in months) the percentage of savings achieved, you could be liable for a bill that is larger than originally listed even after winning the appeal. This is because on average the appeals don’t take place until almost a year after the petitioned get filed and sometimes closer to a year and half.
We would need to achieve a reduction of more than 25% to negate any interest penalties that have accrued. While this has happened in the past in some cases, it is not the norm and shouldn’t be expected.
You can actually make money! To offset the INTEREST PENALTY the law includes a provision that the petitioner will EARN the 1% per month INTEREST if the County must issue you a refund because of a reduction.
Banks do not like this. A few clients have told of us issues with their banks thinking they were in default when the county showed an outstanding balance on the account before the appeal hearing had been scheduled.
Lastly, it makes it very confusing, for all involved, for us to have to send you a bill for a 10% reduction, when you still owe the county 15%, plus interest at 1% per month for 8 months. We’ll look bad, you’ll feel cheated when in actuality we did save you quite a few dollars.

If you’d like to see the exact amount due at any time you may visit the Miami-Dade Tax Collectors Search Page

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