“Thousands more in S.F. seek property tax breaks” plus 3 more |
- Thousands more in S.F. seek property tax breaks
- The Tax & Accounting Business of Thomson Reuters Reveals Results From Business Property Tax Survey
- Tax scofflaws: Read 'em and weep
- Property tax study results released
| Thousands more in S.F. seek property tax breaks Posted: 27 May 2010 05:42 AM PDT In another sign that the economy is taking a long time to rebound, a staggering 6,462 residential property owners in San Francisco applied for temporary property tax breaks this year, city Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting reported Wednesday. If granted, the reductions will kick in next year. In all, 11,700 homeowners have received temporary property tax reductions in the current fiscal year that ends June 30; some at the request of the property owners, others at the initiation of the assessor's office. The cumulative total in reduced assessed value added up to $1.4 billion. Last year, 4,421 informal reviews were requested. The year before 1,673 were filed. Go back three years and the number was a mere 248. Property owners can get a temporary reduction in their property taxes if the current market value is found to be lower than the assessed value. While that can be good news for homeowners, it can be bad news for the city, which relies on property tax revenue to help fund Muni, police patrols, street repair, park upkeep, health clinics and other city services. Those who received a temporary reduction last year will automatically have the assessed value of their homes reviewed again this year. Property owners will be notified by early August whether their request has been approved. Property owners who disagree can appeal to the Assessment Appeals Board by Sept. 15 for relief. Ting attributed part of the reason for the bump to a simplified application process. The lousy economy, however, is the driving force. "The ongoing trend of increased informal reviews represents the downturn in the real estate market," he said. - Rachel Gordon The money shuffle: The financial woes at Muni and Caltrain just eased up - at least a little - thanks to action taken by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission Wednesday. The commission, without dissent or discussion, approved a plan to reshuffle some federal transit funding so that it could essentially be used to help the two financially strapped systems. The shift, which is entirely legal, allows Muni to use $7 million, and Caltrain $4 million that had been intended for equipment or vehicles, for preventive maintenance. The money already budgeted for that use can then be spent for other purposes. Caltrain announced in April that it could have to eliminate all weekend, night and midday service because of funding problems. The commuter rail system relies on contributions from San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency, San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Agency. Muni just slashed service by 10 percent earlier this month, and that followed a service restructuring in December that eliminated several routes and shortened others. And SamTrans could no longer afford to make its full contribution. San Francisco and Santa Clara were expected to follow suit and withhold their contributions. Kristen Holland, a Muni spokeswoman, said the $7 million will be used to plug a budget gap that was left wide open when the Board of Supervisors, acting as the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, refused to give Muni $7 million in sales tax proceeds unless service cuts were slashed in half. Muni officials said they could not afford to do that. SamTrans' $4 million will be used to help it make a larger contribution to Caltrain operations. Christine Dunn, a spokeswoman for both Caltrain and SamTrans, said SamTrans' current contribution was $16.5 million, and the agency proposed reducing it to $10.6 million. "Obviously that $4 million won't make up the difference," she said. "We're still working on our options, but this will help." - Michael Cabanatuan
E-mail the City Insider team at cityinsider@sfchronicle.com. This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| The Tax & Accounting Business of Thomson Reuters Reveals Results From Business Property Tax Survey Posted: 27 May 2010 06:37 AM PDT
NEW YORK, May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters today announced findings from a recent survey which revealed that more than half of respondents expect their companies' property tax burden to either remain the same or increase compared to last year. The survey conducted during a Web seminar in May 2010 polled over 100 property tax executives in various industries including manufacturing, energy, and telecommunications and found that:
Currently there are more than 13,000 taxing jurisdictions in the United States, each with varying rules and regulations on how property, including inventory, is taxed. "As the economy improves, many businesses may believe that they have maxed out their efforts to reduce property tax liabilities," said Jeff Moore of Thomson Reuters. "But with various and changing property tax laws across state and local jurisdictions, as well as a plethora of existing exemptions, some businesses are not aware of the many opportunities still available to reduce their liability." For example, the Web seminar highlighted how the state of Louisiana offers a tax credit to businesses that pay property tax on inventory and Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas offer Freeport exemptions. In addition, the stabilization and increases in some property values vary considerable between industries, property types and geographic areas. Businesses need to carefully review their assessed values during this time of economic change. More information about the Thomson Reuter Tax and Accounting Complex Property Tax Group can be found at: http://onesource.thomsonreuters.com/propertytax/complex-property.asp. About Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and science and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com. The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters is the leading provider of technology and information solutions, as well as integrated tax compliance software and services to accounting, tax and corporate finance professionals in accounting firms, corporations, law firms and government. Headquartered in New York, Tax & Accounting has major operations in Dallas, Ann Arbor (Michigan), London, Sydney, and Toronto, and offices in nine countries. For more information, go to http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/taxacct/. Sabrix and Sabrix Managed Tax Service are trademarks of Thomson Reuters. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. SOURCE The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Tax scofflaws: Read 'em and weep Posted: 27 May 2010 11:42 AM PDT One Raynham resident thinks the names of property tax delinquents should be published in the newspaper. Hall Street resident Brian Downing said the town should pressure property owners overdue on their taxes by a year by making the names public. The move would ease the town's financial problems and defer the need for a property tax increase through an override, he wrote in a letter to selectmen. "Would the names of 'influential' and 'well known folks appear? Good!'" Downing said. Several communities in Southeastern Massachusetts are aggresssively pursuing property tax scofflaws to recoup millions in overdue debts. And Linda King, the town's treasurer and tax collector, said the town published the names of tax scofflaws but only after trying to coax the money out of struggling property owners. King said her office works with residents to collect overdue taxes. But the bulk of the unpaid funds come from developers who have gone bankrupt or lost their projects to the banks. The town has three and a half years to get the money and stake claim to the property, King said. She is now working on legal action to collect about $103,000 in unpaid property and water taxes for fiscal year 2008. Most of the debt is from the developers of Carriage Hill Estates and Kings Estates. "If we're not paid, we're ready to do a tax taking. We notify them that we're going to advertise and place a lien on the properties at the registry of deeds," she said. The town must publish the list in the paper as required by law. The last publication was done on Nov. 27, 2009 at the cost of $1,620. All delinquent taxpayers in the fiscal year of the publication are included, she said. "No one is excluded from the list," she said. Selectmen also didn't jump at the suggestion to publicize bad debts after a year. Board Chairman Marie Smith said some home and business owners were struggling to make ends meet. "To put something in the paper and call attention to it, I don't know if it's absolutely necessary," Smith said. Downing said his recommendation was not mean-spirited. Residents encountering financial problems would not be included, he said. In November, Bridgewater posted the names of tax delinquents on the town's website for bills predating 2006. Other communities have hired third-party collectors or publish the names of the top debtors. Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Property tax study results released Posted: 26 May 2010 04:44 AM PDT
The state legislature asked for the study after Marshall University released a report in 2006 showing the state was subsidizing counties that weren't collecting enough tax revenue because of undervalued properties.
The state Department of Tax and Revenue hired independent appraisers to look at 19 counties in the first year of the study to determine whether they are properly assessing property values.
"So this was an independent review to make sure that taxpayers are being treated fairly and they are paying their fair share across the board no matter where you live," Kimberly Osborne, Tax Department communications director, said.
At the end of March the tax department sent letters to the assessors letting them know the results. Eleven assessors were told there are numerous areas that need improvement. The remaining eight received letters saying their offices are performing duties in a fair and equitable manner.
A major problem cited in letters to counties that didn't do as well is something called "sales chasing."
"Well within each neighborhood you have sold and unsold properties and if the only ones that get changed are the sold ones then you're chasing sales," Brad Unger, Berkeley County chief appraiser, said.
"We have to adjust our factors within that neighborhood to affect everybody based on the market, and that's what we try to do."
Berkeley County received a good review and Unger said the state tax department discourages sales chasing.
Rodney Pyles, Monongalia County's assessor disagrees, though.
Sales chasing was cited as a problem in Monongalia County. The study found that on average, that county's assessor increased the value of sold properties by 70 percent, while the value of unsold property was increased only 26. Pyles maintains that the tax department encourages the practice because one way the state tax commissioner makes sure an assessor is doing a good job is by looking at the appraisal of recently sold property. "We have been behind in some areas, because the growth in this county has required us to pay more attention to new construction than to older properties, and in some instances values may have been adjusted just on the basis of sales to meet the state standards, so they may have seen some of that," Pyles said. The report says evidence of over-grading properties and improper data collection is widespread in Monongalia County, and it recommends that the assessor visit each residential property again and reappraise it.
"We began looking into hiring a private company to take over some of the responsibilities of appraisal activities in this county, because we realized that we were behind in certain areas and we needed some help, some outside professional help, because we're not able to hire people and get them trained fast enough to do what needs to be done," Pyles said. The county has hired Tyler Technology Company of Ohio to reappraise properties. Work started about a month ago and so far, around 3,000 of the county's 45,000 properties have been reassessed.
Pyles says changes will appear on 2012 tax bills, which may or may not go up depending on how the County Commission sets the levy rate. "There's a process by which levy rates can be
rolled back, and so if there is a really great or drastic increase in property
values, we'll see that," Pyles said.
"At least some of the levy rates, probably at the
county level and the municipal level will be rolled back so that the
tax increase shouldn't be too great for most people." Even counties that got good reports will have to make improvements. Berkeley County Assessor Patsy Kilmer said the report suggested her office has carved the county up into too many neighborhoods which can unfairly skew values.
"They're saying that we have 264 neighborhoods with fewer than 50 parcels," Kilmer said. "They're telling us that 264 is too many so we're going to consolidate some of them."
Berkeley County also has to improve something called the modifier, a process used to update the per square foot value of older homes.
The study isn't just looking at the performance of county assessors. The state tax department is in charge of assessing industrial properties and Kim Osborne says it looked at that as well.
"The tax department was found that some sales ratio needs improvement when it comes to industrial properties," Osborne said.
The study will be used to make improvements in the assessment process.
Meanwhile this year the tax department is reviewing 24 more counties and will conclude next year with a review of the final 12 counties. Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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