It’s the time of year when property tax bills are issued to home owners. And understanding property tax assessments can be confusing. A common question among home owners and home buyers is, “how are property taxes calculated, and what is the money used for?”
Understanding property tax assessments
Information about property assessments and taxation is conveniently posted on the internet by the Maryland Department of Taxation and Assessments (www.dat.state.md.us) and the Montgomery County Department of Finance (www.montgomerycountymd.gov). There are two factors that determine your property tax bill, the property assessment and the property tax rate.
According to the Maryland Department of Taxation and Assessments (MDTA), “Properties are reassessed once every three years and property owners are notified of any change in their assessment. Assessments are certified by the Department to local governments where they are converted into property tax bills by applying the appropriate property tax rates.”
Because Maryland does not impose any restrictions or limitations, property tax rates vary throughout the State. This means that counties and cities are free to set the rates needed to fund government services. According to the Montgomery County Department of Finance, “The real property tax rate, which is set each year by the County Council, is an ad valorem tax, meaning it is applied to the assessed value of the property. The fully phased-in assessed value equals the full cash value of the property…”
The total tax rate is a combination of the State, county, and (for some home owners) municipal tax rates. The rate is typically expressed in dollar amount per $100 of assessment; the MDTA gives this example to understand how property tax rates are expressed, “for a property with a fair market value of $100,000 the property taxes would be calculated by dividing the assessment by 100 and multiplying the product by the property tax rate. Using an overall tax rate of $1.08 per $100 for this example ($1.00 local property tax plus $.08 state property tax), the amount of property taxes due would be calculated: $100,000 divided by 100 times $1.08 or $1,080.00.”
The MDTA explains, “The property tax is primarily a local government revenue. Counties and cities depend on the property tax and a portion of the income tax to make up their budgets.” Montgomery County levies a general tax to fund basic services, such as police, elementary and secondary education, the community college, transportation, health and social services, and libraries. Additional county taxes are levied to fund public transportation, fire and rescue services, and acquisitions by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Seven additional county taxes are also levied on residents in “specially defined areas.”
If you disagree with your property assessment, you can appeal it by following the instructions provided by the MDTA. The assessment notice has an appeal form, which must be filed within 45 days of the date on the notice (a home buyer has 60 days from the date of property transfer to appeal the property tax by submitting an appeal of the property value, but only if the transfer of the property occurs after January 1st and before the next taxable year).
Know your rights throughout the property assessment and appeal process; SDAT provides “Property Owner’s Bill of Rights” (https://dat.maryland.gov/realproperty/Pages/Bill-of-Rights.aspx) to summarize sections of the Tax-Property Article which deal with appeals, assessment notification, and public information.
Original published at https://dankrell.com/blog/2012/06/13/understanding-property-tax-assessments-in-montgomery-county-md/
By Dan Krell
Copyright © 2012
This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Using this article without permission is a violation of copyright laws.
