The Gwinnett County property tax staff appraisers and assessors conduct periodic reassessments of taxable real property in their jurisdiction. Taxpayers, such as yourself, should welcome these regular activities since it will benefit you in many ways.
Keeping Up with Current Actual Values
A complete reassessment or revaluation of real property involves the thorough analysis of every taxable real property in the county, including residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and conservation uses. The objective of each reassessment is to bring the real property’s appraised value in line with its present fair market value and to ensure that every taxpayer/property owner pays their fair share of taxes.
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And therein lies the foremost benefit of periodic reassessments for property owners and taxpayers – the opportunity to make the assessments both accurate and equitable.
In the case of Gwinnett County property tax reassessments, the Tax Assessor and his staff of appraisers usually conducts the activity (i.e., in-house reassessments). In many cases the Tax Assessor may also decide to hire the services of third-party companies in the conduct of the periodic reassessments, typically with the staff appraisers’ assistance.
Keeping Values in the Past
In many counties across the United States, periodic reassessments are non-existent due to the lack of a formal mandate. Franklin County, for example, in another state has not conducted property assessments since 1961 and, in the process, its assessors have been remiss in their duty to keep up with the current values. This is because in an attempt to achieve equality and uniformity in the property assessments, the assessors place newly-constructed assets (i.e., residential and commercial buildings) on the tax rolls based on the values that they believe the property would be worth in 1961.
While this method may be valid for a time, the more time that passes between assessments, the more tenuous the method becomes until such time that all property values remain in the past, so to speak. Many counties are even prohibited from changing assessments or making spot assessments without a countywide reassessment. The result: The equality, uniformity and fairness of the property assessments become increasingly skewed as the property values in different parts of the county appreciate or depreciate at different rates.
If the property values are not periodically adjusted based on regular reassessments they become regressive! This means that the real property appreciating at higher rates will be taxed at less than their equitable share while property appreciating at lower rates or property with depreciated value will be taxed at more than their fair share. But since property owners who benefit from unfairly low assessments will likely not appeal these values, the inequalities become more and more apparent until such time that there is the political will to change them.
The bottom line: You have to contest the appraised and assessed values provided by the Gwinnett County property tax assessors especially when there have been no periodic reassessments. Your vigilance and diligence in this matter will add to your benefit in terms of fairer tax burden.
