2015 School Tax Bill Hits All Time High

Real estate tax bills are slated to be higher than ever across Long Island. The October 2015 school tax bill reflects the higher tax Nassau County residents are paying. As commercial and residential property owners receive assessment reductions, the tax rates move inevitably upward. Of course, the budgets increase every year as well.

Most municipalities do not assess properties at 100% of value. You cannot simply know what market values the assessor is assigning to your property. In fact, the only way to calculate the market value from the assessment is to know the ratio of assessment to market value for your type of property in that municipality. The ratio changes every year to further frustrate the property owner.

New assessments are to be promulgated on January 2, 2016 for Nassau County and May 1, 2016 for Suffolk County. The villages and cities have different dates and, of course, different assessments and ratios. Watch your mail for any changes in the assessment and have an expert (not the municipal assessor) determine if you are being over assessed.

Real Estate Tax Reduction for Damaged Property

Super Storm Sandy is long gone, but high real estate taxes remain on many damaged properties in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The assessors have reduced real estate taxes for those commercial and residential property owners who filed tax certiorari complaints. Properties with similar damage that did not file complaints, for the most part, did not receive tax assessment reductions. Even if a property received flood insurance, a FEMA payment, or financial assistance from NY Rising protests, the real estate tax assessor had to be separately filed. The next filing date for complaints in Nassau is January 2016, and May 2016 for Suffolk. Mistakes about the assessment can be made at any time; certainly, a property that became uninhabitable should have had the real estate tax assessment substantially reduced.

Buying Distressed/Storm Damaged Properties

Caveat Emptor! Be careful of buying properties on the cheap without checking on the real estate taxes.

Protests to achieve reductions in the real estate tax assessments must be made well in advance of the tax bills. That is to give the Tax Assessor time to hold hearings and determine if assessment reductions should be made or if exemptions and abatements should be calculated. If you are buying a Nassau property in May 2015 you cannot file for assessment reduction until January 2016. That complaint is for the 2017/18 taxes. The first tax bill will be October 2017. That is almost 2-1/2 years after your purchase and possibly a much lower tax would be appropriate based on the reduced purchase price.

The Suffolk real estate tax situation is similar but the period to file a grievance is in May. Village tax complaints to reduce taxes are filed in various months and are usually based on different assessments.

SUFFOLK – REAL ESTATE TAX REDUCTION

Tax Certiorari complaints to reduce the real estate taxes in Huntington, Babylon, Islip, Brookhaven, Riverhead, Smithtown, Southold, Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island are due May 1, 2015. Overall, the market value of Long Island residential and commercial properties are still suffering from the stigma of the Irene and Sandy storms.

Many commercial and residential taxes are going to increase as the budget problem persists. Every real estate tax assessment should be reviewed as tax rates and equalization rates change yearly.