The tax man cometh.
Notices of property valuation and proposed tax rates were mailed to Tooele County taxpayers on July 22 by the county’s clerk/auditor.
Some Grantsville property owners have already opened their valuation notices and noticed a marked increase in their property values.
State law requires that the county assessor’s office perform a detailed, on-site review of all parcels once every five years, according to Jake Parkinson, chief deputy Tooele County Assessor.
“The state requires that our assessed value be the same or very near to the actual market value of the property,” he said.
The county assessor’s office does a detailed analysis of a different portion of the county every year, returning to each neighborhood once every five years.
Last year it was Stansbury Park. This year it was Grantsville’s turn.
The total value of all property in Grantsville jumped by 14 percent as of Jan. 1, 2015 compared to Jan. 1, 2014, according to Parkinson.
Overall, the certified tax rate value of property in Tooele County went up from $2.8 billion in 2014 to $3 billion in 2015, an increase of 7 percent.
The higher jump in Grantsville is comparable to the increase in other areas of the county during their five-year reassessment, Parkinson said.
Grantsville home prices are on the rise, according to real estate statistics for 2015.
The year-to-date median sales price of a single family home in the Grantsville zip code is up 25 percent, according to the Wasatch Front Regional Multiple Listing Service.
Between the five-year evaluations, the assessor’s office does an annual review of the value of all other parcels.
This annual review is less detailed than the five-year review and is based on the change in market values by neighborhood instead of by individual home values, according to Parkinson.
While it may appear that a sharp increase in property values means more revenue for the county, the state’s truth in taxation process reigns in windfall tax increases.
Each year the county auditor, using the assessed values provided by the assessor, computes a tax rate for each taxing entity. The result is the entity receives the same amount of tax dollars, except for taxes received from new growth, as it did the previous year.
New growth is any taxable property or improvements that is on the tax rolls for the current year that wasn’t on the rolls the previous year.
The county auditor’s math and procedures are checked and approved each year by the Utah State Tax Commission. The approved rate becomes known as the “certified tax rate.”
When property values go up, the certified tax rate goes down. When property values go down, the tax rate goes up.
The result, if the certified tax rate is adopted, is that each entity collects the same amount of property tax revenue each year, regardless of what happens to property values.
If the value of individual parcels move up and down at the same rate as the total assessed property value, the certified tax rate means that the amount of property paid by the property owner remains the same each year.
However, when the value of a parcel increases greater than the average, the property owner may end up owing more property taxes that year, even though the certified rate has stayed the same or lowered.
Truth in taxation laws spell out specific requirements for public hearings and notices for tax increases, including the wording and size of public notices.
Truth in taxation hearings and final budget adoptions take place in August and the state tax commission notifies the county auditor by Sept. 1 that final tax rates for each entity have been approved.
The only entity in Tooele County proposing a property tax rate higher than the certified rate for 2015 is the Tooele County School District (See related front- page story).
The state tax commission also keeps an eye on individual assessed values to make sure they match market values.
The target is for the assessed value of parcels to be between 90 to 110 percent of their sales price, according to Parkinson.
In 2014, the average sales price of residential property sold in Tooele County was 95 percent of the assessed value, according to the Utah State Tax Commission.
If a county’s assessed value deviates outside of the target range, the state tax commission may order the county assessor to increase or decrease assessed values countywide or order the county to reevaluate property values.
Property owners have until Sept. 15 to appeal their assessed value if they feel there has been an error in the assessment and they have evidence to back up their claim.
Evidence could include a recent appraisal, comparable property values often available through a real estate agent, or a letter from the property owner explaining factual errors in the county’s information about the property.
The appeal process can be initiated with a paper application or an application can be submitted online, according to Parkinson.
The county assessor’s office will hold two town hall style meetings in Grantsville to explain the valuation and appeal processes. The meetings will be Aug. 4 and 12 at 7 p.m. at the Grantsville City Library.
Parkinson encourages anyone with a concern to contact the county assessor’s office.
Often a problem can be settled without a formal appeal, he said.
“What we do is on the up and up,” Parkinson said. “If we’ve made an error we will fix it. Come talk to us.”