Assessing

With the passage of Proposal A of 1994, taxable value (the value you pay your property taxes on) was separated from your assessed value.  Assessed value, also known as your State Equalized Value, must represent 50% of the property’s True Cash Value.  This number also represents a maximum limit of the taxable value.  In the year following a transfer of ownership, the two must be equal.  In any other year, your taxable value will be the lesser of the SEV or your capped value calculation.  If you have owned your property through periods of rapid growth, it is possible for there to be a substantial gap between your SEV and your capped value calculation.  In this instance, you will still see an increase in your Taxable Value, up to the point it reaches the limit of the SEV.

The SEV represents 50% of the property’s True Cash Value.  True Cash Value is a term defined by law, and is specifically NOT purchase price.  Your sale may be affected by numerous variables that may influence the individual transaction, that have no bearing on the property itself.  To minimize the effect of these variables, all sales within a neighborhood (similar characteristics) are reviewed together to determine a usual selling price based on standardized units of comparison.

There is one time each year during the March Board of Review in which you can make your appeal, either in person or by letter. Read this helpful document on how to make your appeal.

For tax years 2006-2009, P.A. 13 of 2006 allows the July and December Boards of Review to correct errors of “incorrectly reported and omitted property”. The ability of the July and December Boards of Review to make these changes will end with the 2009 year, absent of an amendment to the law; however the Michigan State Tax Commission always has the ability to make these changes under MCL 211.154. Please review your valuation statement, and if such an error has occurred we would be happy to assist you with the 154 petition process.

IMPORTANT: Applies only to real property or to a personal property assessment based on a timely filed statement. The STC refuses to amend personal property assessments where a statement was not filed as required by law.

All businesses with tangible assets within a local jurisdiction are required by law to file a Personal Property Statement with that jurisdiction by February 20 of that year. This statement is the basis for your personal property assessment. Garfield Township will accept these statements through the close of the March Board of Review, and petition the Board of Review on your behalf to accept these statements as filed. In the absence of a timely filed statement, we are required by law to place an assessment on the property based on our reasonable estimate of the value of the business assets. In most cases, these will begin with reported values of similar businesses. Statements received after the close of the March Board of Review will not be accepted for that year, but will be entered as a starting base for the following year should we not receive one in that year requiring another estimate.

IMPORTANT: If you do not timely file a statement, the assessed value can not be changed for that year, even if you subsequently file.