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The Greater Tampa Area Board of Realtors had a meeting today and the featured speaker was the Hillsborough county Tax Appraiser, Rob Turner.

 

It was great to finally get some mysteries solved about property taxes.  It turns out the tax assessor calculates values of homes using a complex computer model which uses statistical modeling.  A real eye-opener was the fact that they can only use values from the prior year.   By law they are not allowed to use any sold comps after January 1^st  of the year they send the tax notices.    So if you get your TRIM notice in September of 2009, the comps they used to calculate were based on sales from January 1^st 2008 to December 31^st, 2008, but the values are weighted heavily on sales in the last quarter of that year.  That explained a lot of questions my clients had. 

 

Another mystery solved was the $50,000 Homestead Exemption.   I had heard it wasn’t really a total of $50k but never understood the calculation.  Here’s the way it breaks down:

 

First $25,000 of assessed value:  No property taxes

Second $25,000 of assessed value:  You pay full property taxes

Third $25,000 of assessed value:  No taxes except for school taxes

 

There’s a link on the tax appraiser’s website you can use to calculate taxes on a property.  It’s very helpful if you’re buying or selling a home.  And you can call their office if you need help with determining Portability on your home.

 

http://www.hcpafl.org

 

If you’re thinking of buying or selling, call Janet Montano, Remax ACR Elite

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