Menu

Property Tax Resources

33 minutes reading time (6505 words)

Minnesota Property Tax Updates

Updated december 2020

Assessors Struggle with COVID Valuations

In Minnesota, the valuation date for pay ’21 taxes was January 2, 2020.  Assessors have taken the position that COVID impacts for 2021 were neither known nor appreciated at that date, and that pay ’21 tax appeals should not consider the impacts from COVID. 

Now, assessors are faced with making valuations for the January 2, 2021 assessment for pay ’22 taxes, with no argument about the presence of the coronavirus.  Some jurisdictions are asking taxpayers to voluntarily produce sensitive income and expense information about their properties, with the suggestion that cooperation could lead to reduced valuations for the upcoming assessment.

While the prospect of influencing value and taxes downward for pay ’22 is enticing, taxpayers should understand that information they provide may be exposed to other property owners with active tax appeals if used by the assessor or its agent in an appraisal.  Assessors also may misunderstand what property operating information means when it is provide without context.  For example, retail properties have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic.  Tenants have often stopped paying rent, or are paying reduced amounts. However, that information may not be apparent from a rent roll that continues to list face rates pending resolution of the tenancy issues.  An assessor considering this information might assume that impacts on that property have not been significant.

Taxpayers are advised to consult their property tax representatives when approached by an assessing office for proprietary operating information.  Otherwise, they might find their sensitive income information is being used in a way that was not intended.


Mark Maher.
Smith, Gendler, Shiell, Sheff, Ford & Maher
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Michigan Property Tax Updates
Missouri Property Tax Updates

American Property Tax Counsel

Recent Published Property Tax Articles

Dual Appraisal Methods Improve Opportunities to Get Fair Taxation for Seniors Housing Properties

The seniors housing sector can't seem to catch a break. Owners grappling with staffing shortages and other operational hardships lingering from the pandemic are facing new challenges related to debt and spiraling costs. High interest rates and loan maturations loom over the industry, with $19 billion in loans coming due...

Read more

Property Tax: The Certain Constant

Property assessments change. Are you keeping up with them?

Benjamin Franklin has been credited (dubiously) with the saying, "in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." The Greek philosopher Heraclitus has been credited (also dubiously) with the saying, "the only constant in life is change...

Read more

Broad Problems, Narrow Solutions for NYC Real Estate

Can incentives cure the city's property market funk?

The City of New York's tax assessment valuations remain on an upward trajectory that compounds the burden on property owners. In stark contrast to this fiction of prosperity and escalating valuation, real estate conditions tell of a growing threat that menaces all asset...

Read more

Member Spotlight

Members

Forgot your password? / Forgot your username?