UPDATED June 2024

Alabama Legislature Passes 7% Annual Cap

The Alabama legislature recently enacted a bill (HB73) that will establish a 7% cap on annual increases in assessed values for most real property parcels in the State.

The cap will go into effect beginning with the 2025 tax year (valuation date as of 10/1/24). The 7% cap shall not apply to: (i) real property that has never been assessed, (ii) new additions and improvements, excluding repairs and ordinary maintenance, (iii) changes in classification, (iv) changes in ownership, excluding some family transfers and redemptions, and (v) properties located within a tax increment district.

The cap legislation has a sunset provision of three years, meaning that the legislature must renew the legislation to extend the cap beyond the 2027 tax year.

Aaron D. Vansant, Esq.
DonovanFingar, LLC
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

UPDATED june 2025

Property Tax Relief for Victims of Southern California Wildfires

The January 2025 fires in Southern California, including the Palisades, Eaton, and Sunset fires, collectively burned tens of thousands of acres and devastated communities across the Greater Los Angeles area.  More than 12,000 structures were destroyed or damaged, including homes and businesses, and initial estimates placed this emergency among the most destructive in California history.  Property damaged or destroyed because of a misfortune or calamity, such as the recent fires, may be eligible for property tax relief in the form of a reduction in the property’s assessed value while the property is in the damaged condition.  There are also other relief options like transferring one’s base year to a replacement property.  Affected property owners should promptly evaluate all available options to ensure all requirements to obtain relief, including strict claim submission deadlines, are timely and appropriately satisfied. 

Cris K. O'Neall and Bree E. Burdick
Greenberg Traurig, LLP
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Updated september 2024

Connecticut Real Estate Tax Update: 2024 Municipal Revaluations in Connecticut – Is Your Town Among Them?

It is always important to carefully review your tax bill and/or notices of assessments, but even more so in the year in which your city or town conducts a revaluation.

Each assessment should be carefully reviewed, even if your assessment has not increased substantially, as an appeal immediately after a revaluation maximizes a property owner's potential tax savings.

Connecticut law requires that each municipality conduct a general revaluation of the real estate within its borders at least once every five years. Given the passage of Connecticut Public Act 22-74, the State's Revaluation Schedule has shifted slightly with the creation of five new Revaluation Zones which purportedly allows for the coordination of revaluation services and provides a mechanism to create efficiency and municipal cost savings. This new law does not change the fact that municipalities must conduct revaluations in Connecticut every five years, however, the result is that some municipal revaluations are a year shorter or longer to transition into the new schedule.

The purpose of a revaluation is for a municipality to determine the market value of real estate to be used to calculate property taxes.

Once a property's value is set in a general revaluation, it remains constant over the entire five-year cycle, absent appeal, demolition, improvements or expansion. Of course, the annual taxes usually increase, as a municipality's mill rate increases incrementally from year to year. Municipalities across the State are on differing revaluation cycles.

The following is a list of Connecticut municipalities conducting revaluations this year:

Bloomfield
Branford
Brooklyn
Canterbury
Coventry
Hamden
Mansfield
Monroe
New Fairfield
North Branford
North Haven
Old Lyme
Oxford
Pomfret
Prospect
Putnam
Seymour
Thompson
Tolland
Torrington
Voluntown
Wallingford
West Haven
Windsor Locks*
Woodbridge

*One-year delay as Revaluation was originally scheduled for 10/1/2023

If your municipality is conducting a general revaluation for the October 1, 2024 Grand List you will receive a notice of tax assessment change soon.

Once the notices are issued, there may be a chance to meet informally with the assessor to discuss the new assessment, which should represent 70% of the fair market value of your real estate. However, if a property owner wishes to challenge the assessment formally, a written appeal must be filed with the local Board of Assessment Appeals by the February 20, 2025 statutory deadline.

It is in your best interest to be proactive in monitoring the revaluation process and your new assessment so that you can take all necessary steps to ensure that the assessment is equitable.

Nicholas W. Vitti Jr. and Joseph D. Szerejko
Murtha Cullina LLP
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

UPDATED june 2025

Property Tax Reform in Florida

The Governor, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President are considering significant property tax reform in 2026.  Although no reform passed in the 2025 legislative session, the House created a Select Committee on Property Taxes, which has already met two times and will continue to gather information about the sources and uses of property tax revenue.  In addition, the legislature passed a bill directing the Office of Economic and Demographic Research to conduct a study and establish a framework to reduce or eliminate property taxes for homestead property.  Some of the initial proposals before the House Select Committee were local referenda to eliminate homestead property taxes, increasing the current homestead exemption to $500,000 on non-school taxes, with a further increase to $1 million for seniors or long-term residents, as well as lowering the cap on annual assessment increases.  Many of these ideas would require constitutional amendments which could be on the ballot as early as the fall of 2026. 

Julie M. Schwartz, Esq.
Rennert Vogel Mandler & Rodriguez, P.A.
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

UPDATED june 2025

Again! - LIHTC's Valuation 

The Georgia Supreme Court granted the writ of certiorari on March 31, 2025 in Gateway Pines, Hahira, LP v. Lowndes County Board of Tax Assessors, from Court of Appeals Case No. A23A1370, and assigned it case number S25C0196. The question to be addressed is “are tax assessors permitted to use the income approach to determine the fair market value of a property with low income housing tax credits?” The case is scheduled for the June 2025 oral argument calendar. Stay tuned for an update on this issue.

Lisa F. Stuckey
Georgia Property Tax Counsel, LLC
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Updated june 2025

Illinois Q2 Update

The northern suburbs of Cook County, Illinois, are currently being reassessed for 2025. All appeal deadlines are currently still open for all properties in Illinois.

Additionally, due to ongoing technical issues within the Cook County Assessor’s Office, second installment property tax bills will be delayed by at least one month beyond the statutory August due date, consistent with delays in the previous two years. The postponement of the expected August 1, 2025 due date may push billing into the peak consumer season. This is the 3^rd time tax bills have been late under Fritz Kaegi tenure.

The Assessor’s Office attributes the delay to Tyler Technologies, its contracted vendor for modernizing assessment data systems. However, other tax officials allege administrative mismanagement, citing the Assessor’s failure to timely transmit initial assessment data to the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR). Although assessment work concluded in December 2024, data was not submitted to IDOR until April 30, 2025—three months later than the prior year.

Tyler Technologies reportedly failed to meet key deadlines in November 2024 and January 2025. The project was elevated to “High” priority on January 30, 2025, prompting weekly coordination meetings. Despite this, early versions of required IDOR reports remained defective, requiring manual reconstruction and significant workarounds. The final report was not transmitted until May 12, 2025.

This report is essential for IDOR’s issuance of the tentative and final Cook County Equalization Factors, which underpin second installment tax computations. Unlike in 2024, when both were issued by May 20, IDOR confirmed it cannot expedite both factors concurrently. Notably, this marks the first year the report was generated using the Assessor’s newly implemented “state-of-the-art” system rather than the legacy mainframe.

Finally, the Cook County Equalization Rate for 2024 has been published: 3.0355

“Molly” Mary A. Phelan
Siegel Jennings
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

UPDATED march 2025

Derby Time is Appeal Time

For most people in Kentucky, early May means it’s time for the Kentucky Derby – but for property owners, May means that it’s time to review real property tax assessments for possible appeal.

Kentucky property is assessed as of January 1st of each year.  A property owner wishing to challenge an assessment must follow the requirements for conferences and appeals.  The first step in challenging an assessment is to request a conference with the county property valuation administrator (PVA).  Kentucky law mandates that all conferences must be held during (or before) a two-week period beginning the first Monday in May.  A taxpayer who fails to request a PVA conference within the statutory timeframe is barred from any further assessment appeals for that tax year.

PVAs are required to send taxpayers written notice of any assessment increase; however, notice is not required when the assessment did not increase.  Taxpayers may appeal their assessment, regardless of whether there was an increase – but it is up to the taxpayer to determine the applicable deadlines and to make the requisite request for a conference.

While assessment notices may go out any time before the statutory appeal period, most counties do not finalize their assessments until mid to late April.

If you have a Kentucky property that you think is overassessed, now is the time to start thinking about an appeal.  The appeal window is easy to miss, and it is open for a very short time.

Michele M. Whittington
Morgan Pottinger McGarvey
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

UPDATED december 2022

Massachusetts Fiscal Year 2023 Property Tax Bills are to be issued

Most jurisdictions in Massachusetts sent out there actual fiscal year 2023 property tax bills during December of 2022.  The actual property tax bill is the first tax bill of the fiscal year that contains as assessed value and a tax rate. It is from this actual property tax bill that rights of appeal accrue. In most cases the fiscal year 2023 filing deadline is February 1, 2023. It is important to review your actual property tax bill as many communities in the Commonwealth are revaluing. In most cases the timely payment of property taxes is a jurisdictional prerequisite to a valid property tax appeal. Timely payment means that payment must be mailed to the tax collector by the due date. It is incumbent on the taxpayer to prove the date of mailing. Taxpayers must be vigilant as the taxing authority has the advantage at every turn.

David G. Saliba
Saliba & Saliba
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

UPDATED june 2025

The Michigan Supreme Court Is Reviewing Whether a Business Property’s Taxable Value Can Be Uncapped for Replacement Construction

On May 22, 2025, the Michigan Supreme Court granted leave to appeal in Knier Powers Martin & Smith LLC v Bay City, SC: 167593, COA: 366114, MTT: 22-001900.

In Michigan, the annual increase in the taxable value of property is generally capped at the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is less.  An exception for this is when there is an “addition” to the property.  In this case, the taxpayer, a law firm, replaced the roof on its office building in Bay City, in 2021. Because of the roof project, Bay City uncapped the property’s taxable value, adding value attributable to the replacement roof in tax year 2022. Bay City asserted the replacement roof was an “addition” not subject to the general cap on increases to taxable value. Bay City asserted the replacement roof was “new construction” which is a type of addition as defined in MCL 211.34d(1)(b)(iii). “New construction” is property “not in existence on the immediately preceding tax day” and is not replacing property damaged or destroyed by accident or act of God. MCL 211.34d(1)(b)(iii), (v).

The Tax Tribunal and Court of Appeals agreed with Bay City. The Michigan Court of Appeals held that “the installation of a new roof on a commercial building was ‘new construction,’ and, therefore,” it was an “addition” that was not subject to the taxable value cap. The issue is now before the Michigan Supreme Court to finally decide.

Jackie Cook, Stewart Mandell, Daniel Stanley
Honigman LLP
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Updated march 2022

Recapture Tax: The Exception To Nevada’s Tax Cap

Historically, property taxes were calculated by simply multiplying the taxable value of a parcel by the assessment rate and multiplying the resulting product by the tax rate.  This simple approach provided a level of uniformity, but in a rising market the increase in a property owner’s taxes would mirror the increase in the value of the property owner’s parcel.  A real estate market that continues to rise, year-after year, would cause taxes to escalate, squeezing those living on a fixed income.  To address this problem, the Nevada Legislature passed a partial abatement from property tax which applies to all properties.  This legislation is commonly referred to as the tax cap because it limits the amount taxes can increase, from one year to the next, to a fixed percentage.  This ensures predictability and stability in the tax treatment of a parcel – unless the valuation of the parcel triggers the recapture tax imposed by NRS 361.4725.

The recapture tax is triggered when, during a three year period, the taxable value of a parcel declines by 15% or more followed by an increase in value of 15% or more.  If the valuation of a parcel fits this roller-coaster pattern the resulting recapture tax can come as a surprise.  The impact is illustrated by the following example which is based on the assessor’s valuation of an actual parcel.

In year 1 the parcel was assigned a taxable value of $1,234,800.  In year 2 the taxable value dropped to $840,351 – a decline 32%.   The tax in year 2 (based on an assessment rate of 35% and tax rate of 3%) would be $8,824.

In year 3 the value of the parcel increased to $1,430,800 – an increase of 70%.  Despite the increase in value the tax cap limits the tax assessment to an increase of no more than $706 – 8% of the tax paid in year 2.  However, the fluctuation in value would trigger the assessment of a recapture tax of $1,515 in year 3. 

In this example the property owner would be assessed the 8% increase allowed by the tax cap and the 17% increase attributable to the recapture tax (although collection of the recapture tax would be spread over 3 years). 

Property owners appreciate the predictability provided by the tax cap in a rising real estate market but are often unaware that a recapture tax might be assessed.  No notice of the pending assessment is given; it just shows up on the tax bill.  Consequently, for many the assessment comes as an unwelcome surprise.

The tax bills for tax year 2022-23 will be issued in July.  Many of those bills are likely to include the assessment of a recapture tax because, following the outbreak of the coronavirus and the closure of businesses, the assessor assigned reduced values to many properties for tax year 2021-22.  Then, after businesses reopened and the incidence of infection waned, the assessor increased the values for tax year 2022-23.  This valuation pattern is likely to trigger the assessment of recapture tax for some properties.

It is always important to critically review the tax treatment of your property, but this year there will be one added factor to consider – the recapture tax.  Our property tax attorneys know the critical legal and valuation factors that affect the tax treatment of property in Nevada and are prepared to assist property owners in evaluating and, when appropriate, challenging that tax treatment.

Paul D. Bancroft
McDonald Carano
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)