The DeKalb County tax assessment notices are out and dated May 29, 2012. The deadline to appeal your 2012 value is July 13, 2012. The tax amount at the bottom of the notice is an estimate based on the 2011 tax rate and is subject to change. The DeKalb County tax assessment notice, as is the case with all Georgia assessment notices, is not a bill.

Wow. Just like last year, there are some wild and wacky value changes in DeKalb County tax assessments. Values dropped almost 50% on my street. Across the way values declined 17%, and just south 1/2 mile values were increased approximately 20%. A similar situation was seen last year at this time. Check that blog post here. Although the DeKalb County budget is in disaray it would be nice at some point if the DeKalb County tax assessment department gave us the sales information that they are using.

There is just over a week remaining to appeal your commercial Cobb County property tax assessments. The Cobb County property tax assessors took the first opportunity to increase values in several years to heart and jacked up a lot of commercial values. I have filed appeals on commercial values that have increases as high as 115%!

Most commercial property owners will say that we are still in recession, but not the Cobb County property tax assessors. I have clients that are teetering on the edge of insolvency but everything is looking up at 736 Whitlock Avenue! Maybe they haven't noticed that vacancy rates haven't improved. Maybe they haven't heard that tenants can still demand lower rent payments on the legitimate threat of moving to a lower cost building.

 DeKalb County tax assessments will be mailed on May 29th according to a report by the AJC. This will make the tax assessment appeal deadline July 13th. The DeKalb County Tax Assessment office reports that values (assessments) dropped six percent for the 2012 tax year. There continues to be value weakness throughout the Atlanta metro area. 

The DeKalb County Board of Equalization (BOE) continues to struggle under the weight of the 2011 tax assessment appeals that are still unresolved. I was just engaged to do a hearing on June 6 for a homeowner that cannot attend their 2011 hearing. Anyone of right mind would not want to attend one of these hearings as it is first come, first served, and too many hearings are scheduled for each morning or afternoon.

Fulton County Tax Assessors have released the dogs, I mean the 2012 property tax assessment notices. All that I have seen were dated yesterday May 14 and have an appeal deadline of June 28. There isn't a big rush to get these filed as the Fulton Tax Assessor staff is busy working 2011 tax appeal hearings at the Fulton County Board of Equalization.

The Fulton County Board of Equalization (BOE) is always inundated with appeals every year as it can be difficult to get substantial relief from the Tax Assessor's staff. In addition, many people (inluding myself) prefer to have our appeals settled at the Fulton County Board of Equalization due to the property tax law known as 299C. This is a section of the Georgia property tax law that states if your appeal is settled at the BOE or Superior Court, the value should be frozen for three years, unless you change the property or file a return at a different value.

The Georgia property tax assessment season is now well under way with many metro Atlanta county tax assessment notices already out. First out of the gate was Gwinnett County with an appeal deadline of May 21. Next came Cobb County with an appeal deadline of June 4. Last week Hall County mailed tax assessment notices with a deadline of June 11. Fulton County is expected to mail notices some time this month, as is DeKalb County.