I live in St. mary’s County Maryland,and my Tax Assessment doubled this year. They didnt raise the taxes mind you, they just doubled the Assessment. It amounts to the same thing though doesnt it? Just another slick move.
The town of Yarmouth on Cape Cod used to use that trick all the time, raising the assessment but lowering the mil rate.
So one year I'd be in the Assessors office shouting, "Find somebody to give me the $x you say it's worth!" and a couple of years later when they'd arbitrarily lowered the assessment, "You just stole $x from my home equity without a blink!"
“I live in St. mary’s County Maryland,and my Tax Assessment doubled this year. They didnt raise the taxes mind you, they just doubled the Assessment. It amounts to the same thing though doesnt it? Just another slick move.”
No, it doesn’t.
In Maryland, no matter how high your assessment goes up, your property tax on your resident can’t go up by more than 10% in each three-year cycle. In my county, Anne Arundel, my property tax bill shows what I would be paying if I were paying on the entire assessed amount, and then shows a “homestead credit” for the amount above what they may legally tax me.
Only when someone buys my house from me will the property tax be assessed on the entire assessed value of the house.
This is what results in a two-tiered property tax system, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable. It protects folks who move into a neighborhood from being forced out because of rising property taxes. At the same time, if the new folks who buy at higher prices can afford the homes at the higher prices, they can afford the higher taxes, too.
sitetest