When it comes to filling an appeal for Gwinnett County property tax it isn’t something the owner should do without considering professional help. It isn’t a case of just filling in a few forms. It is knowing exactly what to include and what to exclude. Most commercial property owners include expenses on their income tax returns that are not allowed when valuing property. How many pictures do you need to take etc, this is where experts can help. A professional can help you bring down your tax liability.
A professional Gwinnett County Property Tax Consultant will:
Prepare a market valuation report
File all forms promptly to initiate the tax reduction process
Negotiate with Gwinnett County property tax officials
Represent you at your appeal hearing with Gwinnett County property tax officials or appointees
Handle all communication with Gwinnett County property tax officials.
However it is important to note that Gwinnett County will not send mail to your authorized representative without a written request. It is generally easier to forward the appropriate property tax correspondance to your consultant so that you receive other important mail from the county.
Property Tax Basics
Property taxes in the United States are usually the responsibility of local government, at county level. Real Property assessment (real estate) has two components: the building value, and the land value. Gwinnett County property tax assessors are appointed by the elected County Commissioners. The assessors job is to estimate the fair market value of all property in the county, both real and personal property. The taxable value is called an assessment. Disputed assessments are usually dealt with through assessment office agreements, formal hearings, and finally through the courts. The Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner takes the assessor's value and applies the tax rate to it before sending out property tax bills.
Assessor’s office
The Assessor's office has staff that are required to provide property valuations to the Assessors. The values are generated through a process called mass appraisal. Mass appraisal is appraisal of a "universe" of properties, which is all of the taxable property in the county. The Assessor's office will also have clerks and IT personnel. Tax assessors maintain information about improvements to real estate. They also create and maintain property maps. Individual properties are shown on the maps and given their own land identifiers called Assessor's Parcel Numbers.
Tax maps
Gwinnett County property tax maps are vital to ensure that no properties are missed during assessment. The tax assessors have a mapping department that uses GIS (geographic information systems). GIS is a powerful tool with many applications. The tax assessors use it to keep accurate records of property boundaries, zoning, land use, tax districts, topography, aerial photography, and many more. Each of these items are a "layer" of data that can be displayed on a map. For example you can place a parcel boundary layer on top of a zoning layer to show what zoning a given parcel has.
Market conditions
Market conditions affect value from time to time according to a rising or falling market, something everyone is familiar with. With the Great Recession property values fell nationwide. Particularly hard hit were values in the Atlanta metro area, especially the lowest third of home values in the area, or houses valued at approximately $140,000 and lower. The properties that fell the most are now bouncing back the most however. Values were up sharply in 2013 and you can bet that the tax assessors noticed.
The State of Georgia gets a cut of every county property tax dollar. Georgia requires that market value assessments be no lower than 90% of sale prices, at the median, or the State penalizes the county. This is a big incentive to chase values higher. Property taxes can have huge financial impact on property owners. While it is understood property taxes fund our fire and police departments, roads and schools etc, one should only pay one’s fair share.
