The County Line
Usually property tax assessment is a dull subject that creates little interest, but then, once a year the assessor sends out a notice of individual assessment to those property owners whose assessed values, known as AV, have changed.
All of a sudden there is great interest among those who got notice last week that their assessment has increased. Some others got notice that their assessments were reduced. Others got no notice which means their AV did not change.
Property assessments in Indiana are subject to what’s called annual “trending” which is designed to keep information current and avoid huge increases in values which used to show up every 10 years when there was a general reassessment.
Trending is a method of using the sales prices of comparable homes in a neighborhood or subdivision to establish current values. There can be mistakes in establishing value on a given property, but mistakes are rare because assessing officials have pretty good information.
If a homeowner feels there is something wrong with his or her assessment they may appeal. Appeals go to the County Assessor’s office which then has township officials review the situation. If a township assessing official cannot find errors or reasons to change values, the appeal goes to the Property Tax Board of Appeals where a property owner is offered the opportunity to present evidence to support his or her position.
Any changes made in this year’s trending will be effective for 2018 taxes.
The whole subject of property taxes and the assessments on which they are based is confusing the many people. The public, for example, is told that taxes can be no higher than one percent of the assessed value of their property. But, that one percent is applied to a changing, and usually increasing, assessment.
In addition, those tax levies approved by voter referendum come in addition to the one percent cap. So, if a taxpayer lives in a school district that has adopted an additional rate of 25 cents per $100 of AV, taxes can exceed the one percent of a property’s assessed value.