Do you know how to tell if your property tax is fair every year? Have you ever been told how to find the assessment on the tax bill? If you aren’t sure that you are truly paying a fair amount of DeKalb County property tax, there are ways that you can find out. In this guide, we’re going to cover how to figure out if your taxes are fair, and how the local government calculates taxes based on the fair assessment.
What Is Fair Assessment?
The fair assessment isn’t what you pay each year, but instead it’s an assessment of what your property is worth, which is what is taxed. The DeKalb County government will determine what your house is worth and then tax that amount. However, if you don’t think your home is worth what the government says it is, you could be paying way more in taxes than you should be. You can, in fact, challenge this number, and have your property taxes lowered.
How Is Fair Assessment Calculated?
This can get a little complicated. Every county or state that taxes property has a Residential Assessment Ratio (RAR), which you can look up online for your specific county. In DeKalb County, this rate is 40%.
Additionally, every neighborhood or specific area in the county will have an average market value for homes in the area. This can be hard to figure out, but a local realtor can help you determine this value, or you can look up home prices online for your area.
The local market value times the assessment ratio gives you a value called the assessed value. So, if homes in your area are worth $100,000, and the RAR is 40%, the first value you need for the assessed value is $40,000.
Next, the assessor will consider any exemptions that you may have, and subtract those from the assessed value. Let’s say you have $10,000 in available exemptions. That brings your taxable value down to $30,000. Exemptions may include things like green energy upgrades to your home.
Finally, that taxable value number is multiplied by the local property tax rate – in DeKalb County, this is 0.0041 – and you get your total tax bill. In the example we’ve used, your tax bill would total $1,230.
When It Isn’t Fair
Let’s say that the local market value for your area is $250,000. But your home is small, on a small lot, and hasn’t been updated in a while. Maybe it’s only worth $90,000. However, because the area you live in has been recently growing, the value of homes has gone up a lot. You will be taxed at the rate for a home that is worth far more than yours. In this case, you can challenge the rate of tax to ensure that you are getting a fair rate of DeKalb County property tax.
To appeal the tax amount you have to pay, contact Fair Assessments LLC today at (404) 618-0355.
