Assess this: property tax relief in the wake of a bursting bubble.

• Author: Cangelosi, Anthony S.
• Position: Propertytaxation

The bursting of the bubble has affected residential, commercial and investment properly owners. In situations where the assessed value is greater than market value, there are methods in place to enable a property owner to have the county assessor reduce the assessment. The following offers CPAs some insight as they provide property tax consulting for their clients.

What and When to File

Practitioners should be aware of two different--but easily confused mechanisms to file for an assessed value reduction: assessment appeals and decline-in-value reassessment.

For assessment appeals, most counties have a filing period that begins July 2 and ends either Sept. 15 or Nov 30 depending on whether the county assessor mails notices by Aug. I (see www.calcpa.org/FilingPeriods for the full list of filing periods).

For a less formal request for decline-in-value reassessment, the filing periods begin once new assessed values are made public, which is usually around the first week of July, and end in December--although this tends to vary from one county to another.

It's important to note that assessment appeal applications are submitted to the county's assessment appeals board, which is made up of hearing officers typically appointed by the county's board of supervisors. The decline-in-value reviews are submitted directly to the county assessor's office.

There is no reason a property owner cannot simultaneously file one of each type of application. In fact, it makes sense to file both because an appeal can be withdrawn if acceptable results are achieved through the informal decline-in-value review or during die pre-hearing negotiation with the assessor's office.

While the informal decline-in-value reassessment application is a free service offered by most county assessors, a trend has developed over the past several years resulting from the growth in properly tax consulting linns with mass filing campaigns: Assessment appeals boards in 23 counties ask for a filing fee that ranges from $26.75 to $60 per parcel (also see www.calcpa.org/FilingPeriods for the full list of filing fees.)

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In some situations, such as reassessments resulting from acquisitions and ownership transfers, valuation dispute filing periods generally lapse 60 days after the date the supplemental notice was mailed. In certain circumstances the date may be 60 days after the receipt of the tax bill for the reassessment.

Practitioners should be very careful to adhere to...