You may recall our New Years Resolutions, Property Taxes and Free iPods blog last month when I asked for your ideas on what you’d like to read about.  In that post I asked: “What property tax articles have you read lately that disturb you?  What property tax practices make you laugh?  Or Cry?  What crazy assessment techniques make you mad?........” 

Well, let me tell you I received some very enlightening and entertaining comments and stories!  Thanks for all the submissions, it was great to read them.  You may also recall there was a little incentive for the top 4 ideas (click here to find out more).  After much deliberation, here are our four winners:

·         Our fourth place winner is Robert with Tyson Foods, Inc.  He was intrigued when an assessor in Missouri stated that the state suggested they should be careful about lowering values as this was only a short downturn so they could have trouble taking the values back up once the recession was over.  Interesting valuation concept!

·         Our third place winner is Hugh with Sourcecorp.  Property tax bills are collected quarterly in MA.  The first two quarters are due before the total tax is determined (based on estimates) and the third and fourth quarters are then trued up.  Isn’t there an easier way to do this?

·         Our second place winner is Daniel with Ahold USA.  Daniel commented on a Minnesota Tax Court judge who ruled that an assessor was not qualified as an expert because he did not have the legally mandated appraisal license!  I wonder if there are any others out there……

·         Our first place winner is Lesli with Rotech Healthcare Inc!  Lesli questions why auditors in California can freely adjust values on equipment 200%, 300%, 400% using trade level adjustments.  With little or no guidance (or analysis for that matter), trade level adjustments have added a new level of frustration with CA audits…..  as if we didn’t have enough frustration already.  

Congratulations to Leslie, Daniel, Hugh and Robert!  Leslie will be receiving her new iPod soon.  Daniel, Hugh and Robert can also expect their iTunes gift cards to arrive shortly.  Thanks again for all the submissions!  Keep reading the 'A Tax to Grind' articles to see if your submission is transformed into a blog.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1… And it’s 2010!  Wow!  That went fast…. It seems the older I get the faster time travels.  Did you make any new year’s resolutions?  Are you looking to hit the gym?  Quit smoking?  Eat better? Advance your career?  Spend more time with friends and family?

2009 presented us with a whirlwind of events and activity, including the online launch of A Tax to Grind blog.  The rapid growth of the blog’s community has kept us on our social networking toes.  Thanks for your participation and encouragement.  It has truly been a fun and exciting adventure and we have even more planned for 2010.

In 2010 we will continue to enlighten and entertain our readers and grow the A Tax to Grind community.  As we move forward, I’d like to find out what you would like to hear about.  What property tax topics, events, stories, and ideas are floating around your head and need to be let out?  What property tax articles have you read lately that disturb you?  What property tax practices make you laugh?  Or Cry?  What crazy assessment techniques make you mad?  What interesting property tax story makes you happy?  What property tax revolts need to be addressed….. stopped……or joined? …… You get the idea.

As a special incentive, we will give away an iPod to the reader who sends in the best idea.  The rules are simple….. just send in 2-3 sentences on your topic of interest (feel free to attach any articles, videos, court cases or other information that shed light on your topic).  Email them directly to me at dlevan@advantax.com by January 22.  After reviewing all the entries, a winner will be selected and announced on the blog.  iTunes gift cards will be sent to the second, third and fourth place finishers and they will also be announced in the blog.

It is hard to believe 2009 is already coming to an end.  Thanks for being part of the community of “A Tax to Grind”.  Hopefully you have been enlightened and entertained this year.  Have a wonderful Christmas and safe New Years!  I look forward to picking up our conversation in January.

Well, it’s that time of year.  The turkey is in the oven, the cranberry sauce is simmering, family and friends are in from out-of-town and… the property tax bill is due. Yep, it’s that time of year. Just when you are to celebrate thankfulness, that infamous, unwelcome bill from your local jurisdiction comes to mind. What better way to taint the occasion than the thought of having to pay your property tax bill.

There are many other things that you may be thankful for this Thanksgiving season; your health, your family, your friends, your job, the feast on your table, etc. but I’ll bet (and I’m taking a guess here) that one thing you may not be thankful for is your property tax bill. It’s there, waiting to make a dent in your accounts, and possibly chip away at your dreams of an in-ground pool come springtime (Clark Griswold immediately comes to mind…)  In our society, paying property taxes is not viewed as a positive expenditure – certainly not helped by over-assessments or mismanagement of budgets…. Even in the ‘A Tax to Grind’ community we take sarcastic tones and jabs at the aspects of property taxes.

This Thanksgiving, I want to be thankful for property taxes. There, I said it: Thankful for property taxes. I think it takes stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, looking at why we have property taxes. Property taxes fund the firefighters and their fire trucks, the roads we drive on, our children’s teachers and their classrooms, the police officers, the beautiful public parks we enjoy, and so much more! I’m going to guess that we are all thankful for these. As frustrating as the administration of property taxes may be, it is possible to be thankful for them and the services they provide this Thanksgiving.

It’s amazing to see how fast the past fifteen years have gone. Just 15 years ago the World Wide Web was a brand new concept. With the advent of the Internet, we can now communicate instantly with anyone, anywhere in the world. Information is available with the click of a finger. 

Fifteen years ago a brand new company, Advantax, was introduced to the property tax industry. A company committed to offer unrivaled property tax solutions with a mission to provide thought leadership in the industry. Fifteen years later Advantax is still engaging the industry in new and fresh ways. 

As we celebrate our anniversary, we also celebrate the advent of a Tax to Grind®, a blog committed to enlighten and entertain those afflicted with property tax. Over the years Advantax has trained thousands in the industry through various venues and publications. With a Tax to Grind we seek to continue that in the context of a community.  

Thank you for taking the time to visit a Tax to Grind®. Whether property tax is your world, or just a small part of it, we believe that you’ll be both enlightened and entertained. We invite you to join us on this journey.