No one wants to pay high property taxes. Then again, no one wants to live somewhere with low property values. You want to purchase your home at a low price, watch the area improve, make improvements to your home, and then sell it at a higher value than you bought it.

Your property taxes are assessed every year, based on such elements as your property’s market value, your neighborhood, schools and parks near you, and your curb appeal. In a perfect world, you’d have a beautiful home with a very high property value, great curb appeal, and a safe and welcoming neighborhood, and you’d have low property taxes, too.

If you live in Georgia, and you own property, you’re going to be paying Georgia property tax. You’re probably also going to have some questions about how these taxes work, when they’re due, if you can appeal yours, and when you might be exempt or able to get a deferment.

Property tax is a somewhat nebulous concept to a lot of people. Either they’ve never owned property and therefore never had to pay it, or they get the bill every year in July and pay their property taxes in one or two installments, sometime before the end of the year, with a deadline that varies by their location.

As of July 1, 2013, any appeal related adjustments to value are subject to these new provisions. The taxpayer may be charged interest on tax amounts due when the taxpayer owes the county money after the property tax appeal is resolved. Likewise, the tax commissioner may owe interest on refunds owed the taxpayer after the property tax appeal is resolved.  

After receiving your Notice of Assessment, a taxpayer/property owner may file a  written appeal within 45 days (depending on your county) of Notice Date. Click here to obtain a copy of the appeal form.

As stated in Georgia law, before tax bills are released, all counties should have already issued an Annual Assessment Notice to all taxable real estate owners. This Tax Assessment Notice should be distributed April - June of each year.

When appealing your property tax assessment for an income producing property there are some expense items that you should not include in your income approach to value. The Appraisal Institute defines operating expenses as the periodic expenditures necessary to maintain the real property and continue the production of the effective gross income. Operating expenses can be fixed expenses that do not vary with occupancy, or variable, which generally vary with the level of occupancy or the extent of services provided. They include management charges, leasing commissions, utilities, heat and air conditioning, general payroll, cleaning, maintenance and repair of structure, decorating, grounds and parking area maintenance, security, supplies, rubbish removal and exterminating.  

There are non-operating expenses that you might be tempted to use in your income approach but the tax assessor will throw them out, or tell the board of equalization that you are including non-operating expenses. Some of these non-operating expenses are expenses that the IRS allows on your tax return, which causes some confusion.