In the last couple of weeks all Palm Beach County property owners received their proposed property tax bill for 2017. Most people take a quick glance at the bottom line of what it could be when the final bill is released in November or worse they don’t look at it at all. If you are not reviewing your proposed tax bill immediately, you could be costing yourself 100s or possibly thousands of dollars. What most people don’t realize is if there is a missing exemption, if your property is misclassified, or you feel the market value assessed by the county appraiser is too high, then you may be paying more than you should.
The county and the cities in Palm Beach County adopt a budget for community services like, schooling, police, fire, etc. Each property owner then pays their equitable share based on their property value. The Market Value in this case is what the Palm Beach County property appraiser’s office believes your property would sell for as of January 2017. From that number you receive credits called exemptions such as homestead, veteran, widow are subtracted from the property value to arrive at a taxable value. The taxable value is then applied to a multiplier called the millage rate to compute your property tax. If you filed those exemptions or any other qualifying exemptions by the appropriate deadline, you may be able to reduce your property tax bill. So you have three items to review before contesting your property tax bill; 1) Does the market value seem to be in the ball park 2) Are all of my qualified exemptions being credited to me and 3) Is my property classified correctly?
If the answer to any those questions is no, then you have a couple of options to dispute your property tax bill. Your first line of defense is to contact the property appraiser’s office at one of the following numbers:
North County 561-624-6521
Main Office 561-355-3230
South County 561-276-1250
Mid-County 561-784-1220
West County 561-996-4890.
When speaking to the county property appraisers office advise of the information that you believe is inaccurate. If the property appraisers office is unable to resolve your dispute, your next course of action is to file a petition with the Clerk of Value Adjustment Board. You must file this petition on or before 5:00 PM September 15, 2017, and pay a $15.00 filing fee to be heard. Assuming you have filed your petition in timely manner, then you will be scheduled for a hearing to make your case as to why your property value should be adjusted.
Click the following link to to download a pdf of the petition. Petition.
Remember you only have until September 15, 2017 5:00 PM to take action.