If Nassau Tax Assessment is Wrong - You Can File for Correction

With the 420,000 plus reassessments, there were bound to be many errors. Well, the Assessor’s office outdid themselves and there are hundreds of out-and-out mistakes.

Petitions to correct market value judgment calls have already been filed. However, we can file applications to correct mistakes throughout the year. A typical mistake would be a property with 1/2 acre mistakenly coded as 2 acres, a 3 family residence incorrectly coded as a 4 unit commercial rooming house; a commercial industrial building mistakenly coded as fully rented although it is vacant. Mistakes happen and that is why the application to correct errors must be made before the tax bills are prepared for next year.

2020/21 Nassau Re-Assessment Woes

It is shocking how many times a day prospective clients complain about the market value increases on their commercial or residential property. The protest period is now.

Actually, the increase or decrease in assessment or market value is relatively unimportant.  What is vital is the new market value and how it compares to reality. That is why you need to have an expert compare the re-assessment value with what the property is worth for TAX ASSESSMENT PURPOSES.  Building a very expensive home should not be assessed at that cost if it is out of line with the average values of homes in the area.  A retail store should not be assessed based on its lease if it is a franchise property and assessed much higher than locally owned similar size stores.

Assessments are supposed to be uniform and true to market values; the current re-assessment has placed many properties outside of the proper valuation.

Taxes are Up - Market Values are Up

Welcome to January 2019 and the new Nassau tax bill and the re-assessment for commercial and residential properties for 2020/21. You might find this hard to believe, but (you knew there was a but coming); the notice you received before the New Year is not necessarily correct. The assessor made thousands of changes, so far.

The only way to know what the proposed assessment will be for 2020/21 is to check the January 2, 2019 assessment roll. Even then you will not know the tax impact for that new assessment. The tax rates for the 2019/20 assessments are not even close to being calculated. The 2020/21 tax bills are 22 months away! The only prudent approach is to have an expert check your new assessment to determine if a protest should be filed.

New Nassau Re-Assessments

The 2020 Nassau reassessment notices use the 2017/18 assessment and market value and taxes to compare with the projected 2020/21 market value and taxes. This is not a good comparison as the 2017/18 market value was based on an old, out-of-date ratio of .25%. For many of our commercial and residential clients, we successfully reduced the assessment in 2018/19 and 2019/20. You should have a qualified attorney review the tentative 2020/21 assessment to advise you, if a protest should be filed in January 2019.

Let the taxpayer be aware!

New Real Estate Tax Assessments - Is the Nassau Assessor’s office ready?

I just came back from a family get together in Washington D.C. The tour of the Capital was (as always) exciting, especially because we had our almost 8-year-old, Grandson with us.

I came back to a considerable number of e-mails and phone calls from clients, both commercial and residential, who received their new assessments and increased (mostly exaggerated) market values. There are just not enough tax assessment personnel to deal with the tens of thousands of taxpayers faced with very large real estate tax forecasts.

January 2, 2019, is the date for the new Congress to be sworn in and for the protest of tax assessments filing period to begin.

Nassau Re-Assessment Notices

County Assessor’s notices of re-assessment of residential and commercial properties have started to be sent out. The house assessments are now being assessed at .1% of value. If your re-assessment is 498 the assessor is valuing your home at $498,000. Because the residential assessments were really being valued at .14% the new ratio increases the assessor’s estimate of value by almost 40%. That means the same assessment as last year is actually a 40% increase. What is the effect on taxes - no one knows now. The new assessment affects next year’s tax bill - not now.

Confusing assessment - it sure is and means you must have your value checked and protest the new assessment this January. 

Let the taxpayer beware!

Nassau County Commercial and Residential Property Tax Assessment

In a few weeks, every property in Nassau County will have a new assessment, a new ratio of assessment to market value and a new market value. The assessment by itself is only part of the tax bill. Since almost all Long Island properties are assessed at only a fraction of true value; it is the ratio of assessment to market value that indicates the market value the assessor is using to tax your property. If a property is assessed at 1% then you have to multiply the assessment by 100 to find the market value the assessor is using to tax your property. If the ratio is .25% you have to multiply the assessment by 400.

Incredibly, the assessment ratio on the MyNassauProperty.com website has been out of date for 8 years. Your new assessment should be checked to see what market value the assessor is using to tax your property.

Let the taxpayer beware!