Meeting Recap - There weren’t nearly as many people at the meeting last night as in the week before, but it was the best meeting so far—in my opinion. Obviously, all of our pleas for information, advice, and overall help have made a difference—at least with our Polk County Commissioners.
Brandon the appraiser gave a long power point presentation with info that some people might not have known. Unfortunately, he completely skipped over the one thing that many of us wanted to know: how are these “tax neighborhoods” determined?
All of the Commissioners started out a few weeks ago saying, “There’s nothing we can do.” At this meeting, they were offering help, explaining how they’ve searched for answers for us, and offered to get info on tax neighborhoods, etc. for us from the tax office if we need help with that.
The BEST thing is that our Polk County Commissioners said that they will consider asking other County Commissioners to seek statewide tax reform for all citizens—putting real caps in place for any possible increases. They are talking to state representatives Sen. Hise and Rep. Henson about the situation and apparently plan to send a non-binding resolution to the state asking for some sort of cap on revaluation increases like South Carolina has (15% increase cap per every 5 year revaluation).
Does anyone have a suggestion when we should start a hard push for statewide property tax reform? No one is safe—especially in Polk County and Rutherford County—without tax caps…similar to the ones in SC.
The new appraisals for people who informally appealed around TIEC will all be mailed at the same time.
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Here is everything you need to know about the appraisal and appeals process.
You may have noticed that for some off us in the Green Creek area they have gone in and revised the valuation from $20,000/acre (after the 1st acre which is usually assessed at 30k) to $17,000/acre so they clearly decided they couldn't defend the previous numbers and have made a minor adjustment (see letter below). This may not be enough of an adjustment for many folks so I've attached links (all on the Polk County Tax Office page) with everything you need to know about the process including the appeal process.
* GIS to look up your property and check the land value listed: https://polknc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Solutions/s2.html?appid=bfa647115de44dd09e983a0fa9a4d18e
2017 revaluation info: http://www.polknc.org/departments/tax_assessor_collections/docs/Revaluation%202017%20-%20web.pdf
* Appeal Process: http://www.polknc.org/Appeal%20Information%202017.pdf
Board of Equilization and Review Schedule (formal reviews held locally): http://www.polknc.org/2017%20NOTICE%20OF%20MEETINGS--BOARD%20OF%20E%20AND%20R.pdf
* Tax Relief Rules (State level): http://www.polknc.org/Tax%20Relief%2017.pdf
Rules for Land use as agricultural land, horticultural land or forest land (taxed at a lower rate):
THE document used to assess land, residential and commercial property etc. - loads of detail, but explains a lot of the processes they use. * Pay special attention to "land use factors" starting on page 36 for issues related to your land which might reduce the usable value: http://www.polknc.org/2016%20Polk%20SOV%20Final.docx
Tax rate table: http://www.polknc.org/TAX%20RATE%20BREAKDOWN%20WORKSHEET%202016-2017.pdf
Brandon the appraiser gave a long power point presentation with info that some people might not have known. Unfortunately, he completely skipped over the one thing that many of us wanted to know: how are these “tax neighborhoods” determined?
All of the Commissioners started out a few weeks ago saying, “There’s nothing we can do.” At this meeting, they were offering help, explaining how they’ve searched for answers for us, and offered to get info on tax neighborhoods, etc. for us from the tax office if we need help with that.
The BEST thing is that our Polk County Commissioners said that they will consider asking other County Commissioners to seek statewide tax reform for all citizens—putting real caps in place for any possible increases. They are talking to state representatives Sen. Hise and Rep. Henson about the situation and apparently plan to send a non-binding resolution to the state asking for some sort of cap on revaluation increases like South Carolina has (15% increase cap per every 5 year revaluation).
Does anyone have a suggestion when we should start a hard push for statewide property tax reform? No one is safe—especially in Polk County and Rutherford County—without tax caps…similar to the ones in SC.
The new appraisals for people who informally appealed around TIEC will all be mailed at the same time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is everything you need to know about the appraisal and appeals process.
You may have noticed that for some off us in the Green Creek area they have gone in and revised the valuation from $20,000/acre (after the 1st acre which is usually assessed at 30k) to $17,000/acre so they clearly decided they couldn't defend the previous numbers and have made a minor adjustment (see letter below). This may not be enough of an adjustment for many folks so I've attached links (all on the Polk County Tax Office page) with everything you need to know about the process including the appeal process.
* GIS to look up your property and check the land value listed: https://polknc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Solutions/s2.html?appid=bfa647115de44dd09e983a0fa9a4d18e
2017 revaluation info: http://www.polknc.org/departments/tax_assessor_collections/docs/Revaluation%202017%20-%20web.pdf
* Appeal Process: http://www.polknc.org/Appeal%20Information%202017.pdf
Board of Equilization and Review Schedule (formal reviews held locally): http://www.polknc.org/2017%20NOTICE%20OF%20MEETINGS--BOARD%20OF%20E%20AND%20R.pdf
* Tax Relief Rules (State level): http://www.polknc.org/Tax%20Relief%2017.pdf
Rules for Land use as agricultural land, horticultural land or forest land (taxed at a lower rate):
- http://www.polknc.org/docs/Tax/PRESENT_USE_VALUE_2013_guide.pdf
- http://www.polknc.org/uvab_manual_2017.pdf
THE document used to assess land, residential and commercial property etc. - loads of detail, but explains a lot of the processes they use. * Pay special attention to "land use factors" starting on page 36 for issues related to your land which might reduce the usable value: http://www.polknc.org/2016%20Polk%20SOV%20Final.docx
Tax rate table: http://www.polknc.org/TAX%20RATE%20BREAKDOWN%20WORKSHEET%202016-2017.pdf