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.