If you're like many office building owners you pass through many of your expenses to your office tenants. Many of you probably prorate the property tax and send it on to each of your tenants. Although property tax changes based on the millage rate and the assessed value of the property, property taxes are considered a fixed expense. However, if you can get this fixed expense reduced you may be at a competitive advantage compared to your office building competition.

Of the major commercial property types in the Atlanta area office buildings have the highest vacancy rates at over 20%, according to Realty rates.com. This means there are tens of millions of square feet of office space available throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area. Office tenants that are flexible on where they are located have an opportunity to save money by changing their location.

Gwinnett County property tax is higher than average for the Atlanta metro area. Gwinnett County property tax rates aren't as high as DeKalb County and aren't as low as Cobb County. For the tax year 2012 the Gwinnett County government did not raise the millage rate. However, for 2013 some tax rates will rise and some will fall within Gwinnett County, Georgia. As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution back in November, based on the settlement of a lawsuit between Gwinnett County and the incorporated cities within it, real estate owners within unincorporated Gwinnett County will see a tax increase, while those in incorporated areas may see an increase or a decrease, depending on how many County services they use.

This is the full quote from Jan Jones, R-Milton, is House Speaker Pro Tem:

The Gwinnett County Property Appraiser is also known as the Chief Appraiser of Gwinnett County. The Chief Appraiser works for the Gwinnett County Board of Tax Assessors. The Chief Appraiser of Gwinnett is hired by the tax assessors to administer the daily functions of the tax assessment department, which is responsible for valuing all of the real and taxable personal property in the county. Click here if you are looking for a Gwinnett County real estate appraiser.

ATLANTA (MARCH 14, 2013) -- Companies and individuals thinking about filing a property tax appeal for 2013 are in luck.

After working with a lot of different people in the property tax consulting business I’ve come to the conclusion that the best people to do this type of work are those that are former tax assessor employees. Having a solid understanding of the mass appraisal process that the tax assessors use is a great advantage when you are working with tax assessment personnel and trying to negotiate a lower value. Being able to relate to the County assessment staff, understanding what their job is, understanding the parameters that they need to work within, and what you can and cannot do if you want to keep their trust is vital.

 I can’t say that I’ve worked for every board of tax assessors in the world but I have worked for two different counties both Fulton County, Georgia, and Prince William County, Virginia, so you could say I know the property tax assessments, and appeals process inside and out. Having been the commercial appraiser manager for Fulton County, Georgia Board of Tax Assessors provides insight into the regular day-to-day operations there.  When I walk into county tax assessment departments and can talk to the county appraiser and let them know that I used to do exactly what they do, that develops instant rapport.

The DeKalb County property appraiser is known as the Chief Appraiser for the DeKalb County Board of Tax Assessors (BTA). Click here for a DeKalb County property appraiser. Together, the BTA and Chief Appraiser administer the functions of the DeKalb County tax assessment office. The tax assessment office is responsible for valuing all of the real estate and taxable personal property for the purposes of taxation. This is also known as ad valorem tax, where ad valorem is Latin for “according to value.”

The Fulton County property appraiser is the chief appraiser that works for the Fulton County Board of Tax Assessors. In the state of Florida the tax assessor is often called the property appraiser so there may be some confusion in terminology. If you're looking for a real estate appraiser that works in Fulton County, Georgia see Atlanta Real Property Advisors.

The Fulton County chief appraiser is hired by the Fulton County Board of Tax Assessors to administer the tax assessment department. The chief appraiser has several deputy chief appraisers working for him or her to help with the management of this large department. The staff consists of residential appraisers, commercial appraisers, personal property appraisers, geographic information systems personnel, and administrative staff.

I have been appealing property tax assessments for ten years now. One thing I am sure of about a property tax appeal is you never know what you are going to get. Market value is in the eye of the beholder, and every beholder has an opinion. 

An appraisal is an opinion of value. Hire two licensed appraisers to value your real estate and they will both inspect your property inside and out. They will scour the market for the most recent, comparable sales. They will agonize over the reconciliation of the data to select the most likely price you property will bring in the open market. You will most likely get two different value opinions. 

In the Income Approach, the deductions from gross income are typical and reasonable operating expenses, and taxes are considered typical and reasonable expense items. However, for tax assessment purposes, the taxes are not known. The values are being established so that the tax rate can be calculated for the current year. If the assessor is establishing a value for 2013 and is doing it at the beginning of the year, the tax rate is typically not known yet. If they are to include a tax component in the Income Approach as an operating expense, then they would have to use the prior year’s tax amount. Because the Income Approach and resulting value is going to have an impact on the current year’s tax rate, last year’s tax would affect the new tax rate. As a result there is a circular argument against using last year’s tax in the Income Approach.

Instead of including property tax as an expense item, the tax assessors add their effective tax rate to the appropriate capitalization rate for a particular property type in a particular market area. This gives a property tax component influence on the final value, but it’s not used as an operating expense and it’s not used as an actual number, such as the prior year’s tax amount. The loaded capitalization rate is then applied to all net income produced by the property, which, in turn, produces a value estimate.