One person's opinion: Property tax
Property taxes.... I think most of us don't mind paying our fair share to support our state and county. What we do mind, however, is the feeling of being worked over.
Property taxes.... I think most of us don't mind paying our fair share to support our state and county. What we do mind, however, is the feeling of being worked over.
In 2002, our home was assessed based on it being 6,200 square feet with living quarters over our garage. The only problem with that is the square footage is 3,300 and the area over the garage is attic storage. So one would think, logically, that with this error would come a refund - at least half as much as the tax assessed and paid on a home twice as large as it should have been. I've learned logic doesn't prevail when dealing with government and taxes. Fairness doesn't either, but that's another story.
Mineral County collects the taxes but the state of Montana determines the assessed value of your property which is the basis for the amount of property taxes you pay. What I found really disturbing is the square footage and/or description of the property isn't listed on the property tax statement or even the assessment notice which is sent out every six years. During the appeal process I just went through, I made the suggestion to the Department of Revenue that this be added to the assessment notice and the tax statement. We'll see where that suggestion ends up. At any rate, currently, in order to get this information, you need to either call the Montana Department of Revenue - our current assessor is Earl "Skip" Hyde (649-6662) - or go online to www.gis.mt.gov. It is my understanding that the online system was only made available recently. In other words, Montana doesn't make obtaining this information easy.
In our case, the market productivity value prior to any adjustments increased by 203% from 2002 to 2008. After having Skip come out and see that we didn't have living quarters above our garage and to confirm the correct square footage, the value increased 152%. Of course, they added a wood shed we built two years ago and realized that the garage was detached so it's worth more. They also increased the value because they realized the covered decks weren't included originally, etc. You get the picture.
They found other ways to make up for the square footage and living quarters mistake so that they didn't owe us a dime for the years we paid on a home double in size with living quarters instead of attic storage above the garage.
Our mistake was not finding out the basis for the market productivity value back in 2002. If we had done this (or had the basis been listed on the assessment notice), we would have discovered the mistake and taken care of it back then. Instead, we looked at the vague and somewhat confusing information provided on the assessment notice and assumed it was okay. We were expecting an increase because 2002 was the first year our new house would show in the value.
You have only 30 days from the date you receive your assessment notice to appeal the information. Assessment notices are received every six years. This timeline could change as it is set by the Legislature. The last assessment notice we received was in September 2009. My advice is to find out the basis for the market productivity value. And if it is wrong, contact the assessor's office. Once you get your tax bill, it's too late.
Email me, Pam Reed with questions or comments at onemtopinion@gmail.com.