Higher Property Taxes = Better Education?
Topic: Property Tax Administration, Property Tax Collections
Monday, 06 May 2013 by David H. LeVan
Loading ...If we are paying higher property taxes, the majority of which goes to the school system, does that mean the quality of education is improving?
Watch our latest PropTax Minute and let us know what you think.
Ask Advantax
Topic: Property Tax Collections
Monday, 29 April 2013 by David H. LeVan
Loading ...At Ask Advantax, we do our best to answer all of your property tax questions.
Here are questions we recently answered – perhaps the answers are helpful to you as well:
Q: What is the difference between the assessed value of my property and the market value?
A: The assessed value is the value placed on your property by the assessing jurisdiction for the purposes of determining property tax liability. Depending on the state and jurisdiction, the assessed value can be equal to market value or it can be a percentage of market value as determined by the assessment ratio.
Q: What should you do if you get a tax bill for a closed location?
A: Receiving a property tax bill for a ‘closed location’ can occur for many reasons including: the wrongful filing of a return (even though the location had closed), the assessor not feeling that there was proper documentation to justify ‘closing’ an account, or an honest error on the assessor’s side.
If you have any questions about property tax, Ask Advantax.
Afternoon Property Tax Tunes
Topic: Property Tax Administration, Property Tax Collections
Thursday, 25 April 2013 by David H. LeVan
Loading ...It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to come home, sit down on the couch, and turn on some relaxing music to enjoy. Sounds pretty perfect, unless of course the music is an obnoxiously loud brass band playing on your front lawn. Such is the case for some taxpayers in India deciding to skimp out on their property taxes.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has created an initiative to shame delinquent property owners into paying their property taxes They do this by hiring brass bands to accompany tax collectors to the properties that owe money, and play music loudly outside until the owners pay up. The initiative, which was launched in March of this year, is aimed at larger taxpayers, some that owe more than Rs 5 lakh, which translates to about 500,000 U.S. dollars.
Rajendra Jagtap, Municipal Commissioner of PMC and mastermind behind this creative idea, believed it would be successful based off of his prior experience in another district in which he worked. And it has been! Since the initiative has begun, the administration has had success in bringing in lots of delinquent property taxes. On the first day alone they were able to bring in Rs 23 lakh from hotels and malls (which is about 2.3 million U.S dollars). So I guess 76 trombones leading the parade right to a delinquent taxpayer’s door really works. How do you think this would play in the U.S.?