New York State Law
requires all properties in your municipality (except in
This pamphlet explains how
your assessor can comply with the law by keeping assessments up-to-date and
equitable each year. The fairness, or equity, of the real property tax depends
on whether similar properties are treated alike. By keeping assessments
up-to-date each year, assessors can go a long way toward ensuring that
taxpayers do not pay more or less than their fair share of taxes.
Assessments are determined
by the assessor, an elected or appointed local official, who independently
estimates the market value of real property in your community. Market value is
how much your property would sell for under normal conditions. Once the
assessor estimates the market value of your property, the assessment is
calculated.
As mentioned above,
Your taxing jurisdiction
(school district, town, county, etc.) is responsible for developing and
adopting a budget. There are several steps involved in this process. Revenue
from all sources other than the property tax is determined. These revenues are
subtracted from the budget to arrive at the tax levy - the total amount to be
raised through the property tax.
The tax rate for
properties in your community is then determined by dividing the tax levy by the
total taxable assessed value of taxable real property in your community (tax
levy ÷ total taxable assessed value × 1000 = tax rate).
The market value of your
property is generally defined as what your property would sell for under normal
conditions. For residential properties, your assessor generally determines
market values by comparing a property with similar properties that have sold in
similar neighborhoods, giving consideration to other factors possibly affecting
market value.
In many communities, where
assessments are maintained at a uniform percentage of 100, your assessment is
market value. In other words, your assessed value would equal market value. If
your community is assessing at a fractional percentage of market value, your
assessment should be based upon the percentage being used throughout the
community. For instance, if the market value of your home is $100,000, and your
community is assessing at 30 percent of market value, your assessment should be
$30,000.
First, as noted above,
your assessor does not increase your taxes. Assessors are trained to be appraisal
professionals; it is their job to make sure that the assessments are accurate
and equitable, which provides the basis for fair distribution of taxes among
the property owners within the assessing unit. Keeping assessments up-to-date each
year is necessary for fair tax distribution.
Next, keeping values
up-to-date each year does not necessarily mean that your assessment will
increase. Market values of properties may stay the same or go down, which means
that some properties should see a decrease in assessed values.
If your assessment does
increase, it doesn't mean that your taxes will automatically increase. In some
cases, a municipality will go from a fractional level of assessment to 100
percent. If the original level of assessment was 10 percent, and the current
level of assessment is 100 percent, your assessed value could go from $9,000 to
$90,000, and you might not see any increase in taxes.
In addition, if your
assessment increases, but the assessments of most other properties increase
more, your share of the taxes could decrease. For instance, if your assessment
increased by 3 percent, but most other property owners saw increases of 5
percent, you'll likely see a decrease in taxes (assuming your school and
municipal budgets remain stable and the tax levy does not increase).
In order to maintain a
uniform LOA, each year your assessor will need to analyze all of the properties
in the municipality to determine which assessments need to be changed. If
assessments have been kept up-to-date each year, or if the real estate market
has been fairly stable, it is possible that few assessments will need to be
adjusted.
Where assessments do need
to be changed, in some cases, your assessor will be able to increase or
decrease the assessments of a neighborhood or group of properties by applying
real estate market trends to those properties. This is possible only when
assessments are at a uniform level. In other cases, the assessor will need to
conduct physical reinspections for reappraisals of
properties. Every assessing unit should be keeping assessments at a fair and
uniform level every year.
Each year, State Law
requires your assessor to sign an oath that the assessments in your community
represent a uniform percentage of market value. To ensure that assessments are
fair, the assessor should actively verify the uniformity of the roll each year.
If the assessor determines some assessments are not equitable, such assessments
should be adjusted. To encourage compliance with State Law,
It's much easier for
taxpayers to understand assessments and determine whether they're over assessed
when assessments are kept at market value. While State law does authorize
municipalities to assess at market value or some uniform percentage thereof,
the State Aid program requires towns and cities to keep their assessments at
market value.
Think of it this way, if
your home is worth $100,000 and assessed at $90,000, you might think you're
receiving a benefit. However, if the level of assessment is 80 percent because
assessments haven't been kept up-to-date, you might not realize that you're
actually over assessed by $12,500 ($90,000 divided by .80 is $112,500). It's
very easy to be confused when assessments aren't kept fair and at market value
(and it's also much more difficult to explain).
While you are not required
to let the assessor or data collector in your home, your cooperation, along
with that of all other property owners in your community, helps assure that
your assessment will be fair and based on complete and accurate information.
Without such cooperation, data collectors are forced to estimate how many
bedrooms, bathrooms, etc., there are in your home. Later, if you disagree with
the assessment for your property and ask that it be lowered, assessment
officials will need precisely the information you refused to provide in order
to rule on your request for a lower assessment.
If it is really
inconvenient to allow an inspection at that time, tell the data collector that
and try to make an appointment for some other date. However, if you can spare
the ten minutes or so that will usually be required, we urge that you allow it
to proceed so that the information necessary for equitable assessment can be
gathered.
Property owners are
cautioned not to allow anyone into their homes without proper identification,
preferably I.D. cards with photographs signed by an authorized town or city
official. "No identification, no entry!"
Because the information
about your property will be used to determine your assessment, it is in your
best interest to make sure that your assessor's data is correct for your
property. You can check with your assessor’s office to receive a listing of the
information pertaining to your property.
Based upon the available
information about your property, your assessor will estimate the market value
of your property. A notice then will be sent informing you of your new
assessment. If you have any questions or disagree with the new assessment, you
should arrange for an informal conference at your assessor's office to review
the information on which the value is based. If the assessment official(s) feel
that a mistake was made (or there is any other reason to question the accuracy
of the assessment), the assessment will be amended.
Only when your assessor is
convinced that all the property assessments are as accurate as possible will
they be placed on the tentative assessment roll.
You will not find the
physical inventory of your property on the tentative assessment roll, but you
will find your assessment, your assessor's estimate of the market value of your
property, and the exemptions you will be receiving. In most communities,
tentative rolls are published on May 1, but you should check with your assessor
for the details in your community.
While the roll is
tentative, you still have the ability to meet informally with your assessor
about your assessment. If at the end of such a conversation, you still feel you
are over-assessed based upon the market value of your home, you have the right
to file for formal review of your assessment. More information about the
assessment review process, including application deadlines and instructions,
can be found in "How to File for a Review of Your
Assessment – A Guide For Property Owners".
Your best source for
information about assessment practices in your community is your assessor. The
county director of real property tax services is another good source of
information. Contact information for local and county officials, as well as
additional information about assessments, property taxes and exemptions, is
available online.
Hundreds of
municipalities across
STATE OF
Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor
Thomas H. Mattox, Commissioner
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance
Office of Real Property Tax Services
Revised September 2010