Information about your Notice of Classification and Value
for 2009/Taxes 2010!
You will be receiving your notice for property taxes payable in 2011. It is referred to as the 2010 Assessment/Taxes Payable in 2011. You may see some increase in the estimated market value, depending if you have new construction, completion of construction or were in the reappraisal area of Eagles Nest Lakes 1 and 2.
The purpose of this notice is to help you understand the property tax system and the assessor's part in that system. Nobody likes to pay taxes and I hear from people every day making that comment. The fact remains, if we own property we are subject to property taxes. Your recently received tax bills for 2010 showed significant increases from 2009. There are many factors that come into play. I will outline them for you, then explain the valuation system.
You will note that you no longer are paying on a "Taxable" Market Value. There no longer is that lower value to pay from. MN Legislature had put the "Limited/Taxable" value into play when the property values were rising rapidly about 12 years ago. It was their method of keeping the taxes lower as you would pay on a percentage of the two differing years. It was very cumbersome to administer and worse to explain. They abandoned the program and the 2010 Taxes reflect that. Everyone in Minnesota now pay on the Estimated Market Value.
You will also note that you have an additional tax for the School District 2142 Bond Referendum passed in December 2009. Despite the Tower-Soudan, Eagles Nest, Greenwood, Cook and Orr voting a resounding NO, the referendum was approved. The result is an additional tax of approximately $140 per $100,000 of Estimated Market Value. It is a 20 year referendum and we are stuck with it. All property owners pay on it, year round, seasonal, commercial, everyone. I highly recommend that you contact School District 2142 at 218-749-8130 and express your concerns. You should also contact your local legislatures as well. Additionally, if you are a Seasonal or Commercial owners, you pay a "State General Tax" that goes to a central pool for schools. It is dispersed on a per capita basis. That tax was a result of removing the school tax from seasonal property tax bills and was via legislation.
If you have vacant property, you may notice your classification no longer is "Seasonal" or "Timber". The Legislatures changed the vacant land classification for NON-PLATTED property to "Rural Vacant Land". It does not change the classification rate, but I have received dozens of calls as to why the change.
I hope the above few paragraphs explain your tax bill. It is important to note that the valuation for that tax bill was established in the early months of 2009 and you received a notice of that valuation in the spring of 2009, giving you the opportunity to contact me for more information. Many of you did. The referendum was voted way after any opportunity to discuss your taxes.
Now, to discuss what is going on with your "Notice of Classification and/or Valuation" that you received. You may notice that there will be a change if your property was in a reappraisal area, did new construction or other work on your property. That valuation is based on all activities on your property in the year of 2009 and you will not pay taxes on that until 2011. Pay attention to your classification, especially if you are homesteaded and the classification does not state so. Get in touch with me so we can get that corrected. We work on homesteads until December for the following year's taxes.
Your Value and why it changes: By many factors but most important, sales in your community. For taxes payable in 2011, the sales from Oct. 1, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2009 are used to establish the sales ratio for your community. Each individual sale is rated against the selling price. For example: The estimated market value is $80,000 and it sells for $100,000. The ratio is 80%. The individual ratios are arrayed in order from lowest to highest and the median is reviewed by the MN Dept. Of Revenue. The Dept. of Revenue requires that the "Median" or central ratio is between 90-105%. If below, a mandated increase to values and if above, a decrease to values. Traditionally the Median has been lower than 90% and thus, increases. For taxes payable in 2011, there will be no blanket increase.
Assessors value property by "mass". We use schedules for land and buildings based on the mass numbers for both. We review the age, condition and quality and enter that information into the CAMA system. Land and neighborhood schedules are created to represent your neighborhood. Factors such as lakeshore, acreage, quality are also considered. Token values are placed on wells and septics. We do not have the luxury of taking each individual property and review it like an appraisal, finding the minimum of 3-5 comparables of improved sales and the same for the land portion. We used the schedules and sales ratio information to create the "Estimate".
In a nutshell, it is important to remember that when you look at your 2010 tax bill, it is truly based on activities on that property in 2008. For the notice for the 2011 taxes, it is based on activities on your property in 2009. The sales were from Oct. 1, 2008-Sept. 30, 2009 for the 2010 Assessment Year, Taxes payable in 2011. While there is evidence that sales may be coming in for less than the past, that is information we can use for the next assessment cycle. Patience is a virtue~
I urge you to contact me to discuss your property value. I can be reached in several ways:
Ellen Trancheff
4293 Arrowhead Pt Rd
Tower, MN 55790
Ph: 218-780-6319
Email: ellent@frontiernet.net
|
|
