"Tax departments should conduct periodic reviews of the tax assessments on comparable property so that discussions about uniformity and fundamental fairness of assessments can be made when presenting the company's case to the taxing authorities."

By John E. Garippa, Esq. as published by Globest.com, December 5, 2008

With the economy mired in a significant recession affecting a broad range of property values, the beginning of the New Year presents an appropriate time to examine a series of steps that property tax managers should take to effectively reduce their company's property taxes. A company's entire property needs to be reviewed annually to determine the effect of market forces on all assets. Any recently purchased property should be looked at to see if the price paid for that property results in assessment reductions.

Tax departments should conduct periodic reviews of the tax assessments on comparable property so that discussions about uniformity and fundamental fairness of assessments can be made when presenting the company's case to the taxing authorities. Further, an annual review of property inventory should take into consideration whether an intangible component continues to be reflected as real property value in the assessment.

Properties that contain significant business components such as hotels, regional shopping centers and senior living facilities all possess intangible values, for example. These business components should not be assessed as real property, but when they are, a tax appeal is necessary.

Tax departments also need to be aware of those legal constraints in New Jersey relating to the proper filing of a tax appeal. All appeals must be filed by April 1, 2009 and all property taxes and municipal charges must be paid in full in order for the department to file an appeal.

In addition, all written requests from the local assessor's office for income and expense information must be answered in a timely fashion. Failure to respond to such requests will result in the dismissal of an appeal. Once all of these preliminary steps have been taken, the road to filing a successful tax appeal will be properly paved.

John E. Garippa is senior partner of the law firm of Garippa, Lotz & Giannuario with offices in Montclair and Philadelphia. He is also the president of the American Property Tax Counsel, the national affiliation of property tax attorneys, and can be reached at john@taxappeal.com.

"Current market conditions such as eroding rental values and escalating vacancy rates impact the current market value and will not typically be taken into consideration by the assessor."

By John E. Garippa, Esq., as published by Globest.com Commercial Real Estate News and Property Resource, May 28th, 2008

New Jersey property owners need to begin reviewing their property tax assessments that were not appealed, now that the April 1st deadline for filing a tax appeal on 2008 taxes has passed. This is an important exercise because of the rapidly changing market conditions faced by New Jersey property owners.

A proper review calls for a current market analysis on the value of the taxpayer's property. The value discovered from the market analysis should be compared to the current assessed fair market value used by the assessor. Don't forget to include the latest Chapter 123 ratio because the assessor's valuation includes this ratio.

Assessments in New Jersey do not change year-to-year. Typically, once a revaluation cycle has been completed, those assessments remain in place for a number of years. Current market conditions such as eroding rental values and escalating vacancy rates impact the current market value and will not typically be taken into consideration by the assessor. This causes a significant disparity between the current assessment and what that assessment should be if it properly reflected the current market conditions.

By performing this exercise on every property in a portfolio, the taxpayer will be in a position to meet with the assessor months before a new appeal cycle starts.

The views expressed here are those of the author and not of Real Estate Media or its publications.

John E. Garippa is senior partner of the law firm of Garippa, Lotz & Giannuario with offices in Montclair and Philadelphia. He is also the president of the American Property Tax Counsel, the national affiliation of property tax attorneys, and can be reached at john@taxappeal.com.