How much of my real estate tax bill should I pay?

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