“Businesses, homeowners appeal Michigan tax bills” plus 2 more |
- Businesses, homeowners appeal Michigan tax bills
- Tax changes unlikely to hit property in resort
- Businesses, homeowners appeal Michigan tax bills
| Businesses, homeowners appeal Michigan tax bills Posted: 29 May 2010 02:43 PM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. (05-29) 14:12 PDT DETROIT (AP) -- A record number of Michigan property owners are appealing their property tax assessments as small-claim homeowners and high-stakes businesses seek relief in a difficult economy. The wave of appeals to the Michigan Tax Tribunal could decimate the budgets of local governments. The deadline for larger appeals above $20,000 is Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press reported. "Since Proposal A was adopted, this is the highest we've ever been," said Patti Halm, chairwoman of the Tax Tribunal. Proposal A, passed by voters in 1994, limited the annual increase of taxable values. New case filings more than doubled between 2006 and 2009, and the current case load is 32,000 for claims of less than $20,000 and 11,100 for larger cases. The appeals also could cut funding for schools, parks and libraries. More than 11,000 commercial and industrial property owners are waiting to have their cases heard. Appeals can take several years to be heard, but property owners who succeed are entitled to refunds of any excess taxes paid, plus interest. Some legislators want to speed the appeals process so property owners get swifter word on decisions. "These waits are unacceptable," said state Rep. Kevin Daley, R-Attica, sponsor of a bill to require a hearing within one year of an appeal. Others, however, say arbitrary deadlines could trample due process rights. For many commercial and industrial property owners, appealing tax assessments is almost required to control costs, said David Nykanen, a Birmingham real estate lawyer who specializes in tax appeals. "If your neighbor does it and gets a reduction, he now has a competitive advantage over you," Nykanen said. "My case load intake the past two years has been at record levels." ___ Information from: Detroit Free Press, www.freep.com Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Tax changes unlikely to hit property in resort Posted: 30 May 2010 10:05 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. He has analysed the possible effects of the tax changes on the property market, and said Queenstown's market was incomparable in New Zealand. He explained the overall strategy of the Budget was to rebalance the economy towards productive investment, which to some degree would mean redirecting investment away from residential property. The tax changes have an effect on the property market in two areas: removing some of the favourable tax rules traditionally enjoyed by those investing in property, preventing depreciation on residential building; and tightening the rules to stop tax evasive behaviour. Furthermore, there will be an investment into IRD resources to target speculators evading tax on trading gains. "Preliminary economic and financial specialist opinion currently varies from no effect through to massive effect, so this far ... I think we can conclude that there is no consensus as to what will likely happen," Mr Snow said. Yet, he pointed to characteristics of Queenstown's property market which sets it apart from the rest of the country, mainly due to the large proportion of market activity driven from outside its immediate geographical location. "Analysis indicates that up to 70% of property purchasers are located outside of Queenstown, whether they be from Otago and Southland, Auckland or an international location. We know that up to 50% of purchasers can come from international locations and of note is that up to 20% of our purchasers can come from Australia," he said. He also found Queenstown's high property prices were an important factor, stating the median house price sat around $500,000, whereas nationally it was around $380,000. About 40% of the resort's residential dwellings were not owner occupied and a high percentage were rented out. "Typically, Queenstown residential property investors are in the higher income-earning bracket due to property affordability, and it is unlikely that changes to the depreciation rules will affect the buying power of these purchasers." Another of the resort's market attributes he found important was that buyers of investment property in Queenstown were purchasing for their own use when they returned to New Zealand or came to Queenstown, often at the end of their careers. "Here the motivation is ultimately personal use and not strictly investment. Investment returns in these cases are a by-product of the original intention. Many purchasers buy a property here as they just want to come here to live or holiday. Financial and economic commentators tend not to have a means of measuring this significant factor." Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Businesses, homeowners appeal Michigan tax bills Posted: 29 May 2010 02:12 PM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. DETROIT – A record number of Michigan property owners are appealing their property tax assessments as small-claim homeowners and high-stakes businesses seek relief in a difficult economy. The wave of appeals to the Michigan Tax Tribunal could decimate the budgets of local governments. The deadline for larger appeals above $20,000 is Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press reported. "Since Proposal A was adopted, this is the highest we've ever been," said Patti Halm, chairwoman of the Tax Tribunal. Proposal A, passed by voters in 1994, limited the annual increase of taxable values. New case filings more than doubled between 2006 and 2009, and the current case load is 32,000 for claims of less than $20,000 and 11,100 for larger cases. The appeals also could cut funding for schools, parks and libraries. More than 11,000 commercial and industrial property owners are waiting to have their cases heard. Appeals can take several years to be heard, but property owners who succeed are entitled to refunds of any excess taxes paid, plus interest. Some legislators want to speed the appeals process so property owners get swifter word on decisions. "These waits are unacceptable," said state Rep. Kevin Daley, R-Attica, sponsor of a bill to require a hearing within one year of an appeal. Others, however, say arbitrary deadlines could trample due process rights. For many commercial and industrial property owners, appealing tax assessments is almost required to control costs, said David Nykanen, a Birmingham real estate lawyer who specializes in tax appeals. "If your neighbor does it and gets a reduction, he now has a competitive advantage over you," Nykanen said. "My case load intake the past two years has been at record levels." ___ Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
The investment property market in Queenstown is unlikely to be damaged by the tax changes rolled out as part of the Government's 2010 Budget, REINZ Queenstown spokesman Adrian Snow said. | You are subscribed to email updates from Yahoo! News Search Results for property tax To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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