Property Taxes - What You Can Do

Property taxes around Tucson grow like fungus. Yet elected officials are quick to assert that they have not increased the tax rate in a long time. What's going on here?

Property Taxes
Property taxes are based on two things: the tax rate and the valuation of the property. In equation form,

[Tax on your house] = [Tax Rate] x [its Assessed Value]

So, in truth, they don't have to raise the tax rate, because property valuations keep ratcheting up like clockwork. For 2005, the Pima County Assessor reported that homeowners can expect increases of 5-20%, averaging 10%. How does this happen?

Tax Rate
Property taxes are levied by the city, the county, the local school district and others. The County Treasurer bills you for these taxes on an annual basis and distributes the money to fund government services. For more information on this, you should contact the County Treasurer's Office (see below). To complain about the tax rate, you should contact the Mayor and your City Council representative, your County Supervisor, your local school board and so on. However, as a practical matter, you may find this factor of the equation difficult to change.

Property Valuations
Your property is valued by the County Assessor's Office on the basis of sales of other homes in your neighborhood. Ask any realtor: Tucson's market is hot. More people keep moving here. High demand means higher prices. When the cost of houses that are sold in our fair community goes up, so does the value of everyone else's house.

The Assessor's Office, of course, has a system. They do most of their work by computer. They collect information about everyone's homes, things like size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, year built, condition, the price you paid for it, type of heating and cooling, and lots more. Using this, they match your home with other homes that have been sold in your neighborhood recently. The increase in cost of those similar, comparable, homes ("comps") determines the increase in the value of your property.

The Assessor's Office sends a notice of its revised valuation of your property, titled "Residential Notice of Value," each year in February. This shows the amount at which they plan to assess your house next year compared to what it is this year.

What You Can Do
You have a right to understand how this value was determined and, if you find errors or inconsistencies, ask them to change it. You have 60 days after the date on your "Residential Notice of Value" to evaluate it and file an appeal.

The first thing to do is to check the information they have in their database for your house. If it is wrong, you may have a good basis for getting the valuation changed. For example, if the records show that the square footage of your house (which is measured around the outside periphery) is 3000 sq ft and it is actually 2000 sq ft, that could get you a sizeable reduction in taxes.

After you have checked the accuracy of the data on your house, next check the "comps." These are the houses that have sold recently in your neighborhood that have driven valuations higher. You look for houses that are as similar to yours as possible for each of the items of information that are in the Assessor's database.

How do you do this?

Check up on the Assessor's evaluation
In years past, this involved a trip downtown to the Assessor's Office. However, now you can do this at your computer using the Internet, where information, forms and data on your house and everyone else's can be found at the Assessor's website. Click on "Public Service" for information.

Finding the data is a bit more complicated. Go back to the main page and
 1. Click on "Data" on the first line.
 2. Enter your name, address or parcel number. Your name is probably easiest: enter last name first, then first name and do not use any punctuation between them.
 3. When your property information appears, click on the parcel number for details.
 4. After checking this information, go to the top of the page and click on "Residential." This lists the information on which the value of your home is based. Check each item for accuracy.
 5. Next, go to the top again and click on "Comparables" near the top of the page. A pop-up window should appear. If it doesn't, you probably have pop-up windows blocked on your browser and will need to change it.
 6. Click on the "Search" button that appears in the upper left-hand corner of the page. Your house will be listed first, followed by homes in your neighborhood. You can search these for comparable homes.

It will take a while to figure out what the data is, but this part is fundamental to the process and something every homeowner would be wise to do. If you have questions, you can call the Assessor's Office at 740-8630.

Visit the County Assessor's Office
Alternatively, you can just go to the Assessor's Office and get personal service. It's located on the first floor, south side, of the Old County Courthouse building, 115 N. Court Ave., downtown. Oh, yes, you may be thinking, but what about parking?

You can park just across the street in the Tucson Pima Public Library's parking lot and get two hours free parking during library hours. Approach it from Stone Ave. and Alameda St. (second traffic light south of the Stone Ave. underpass), then go west on Alameda (it's one-way) and, in the middle of the block, turn left into the entry for the underground garage. Take the elevator or stairs to the first floor to stamp your ticket, then exit and walk around the building on the south side and go west. You'll find the County Courthouse directly before you across the street. On the way back, you might want to check the library for books and other information on property taxes and how to appeal.

The Assessor's Office tries to be objective and unbiased. We've found that the staff is friendly and very helpful in explaining things. They also can give good advice. Just be as pleasant and courteous to them as you would like them to be to you, and keep asking good questions that give them the opportunity to provide you with what you need. They will also print a copy of assessed valuations in your neighborhood so that you can check the "comps" (which you can also do on their web site).

You can appeal
As in any legal appeal process, your appeal must be based on the rules and their interpretation or application. Are there errors of fact or questions of decisions? Is the data correct? Were the best set of "comps" chosen? Is there something about the data or the comps that is misleading or not representative in your case? Is there other information in your favor that the Assessor's Office may not be aware of?

If you think this is the case, you can download an appeal form from the Assessor's website or call the Assessor's office and ask them to send one. An explanation of procedure will be attached. However, you will also probably find it very useful to first go to the Assessor's Office and talk with knowledgeable staff about your appeal and the basis for it. This will help you understand better how things work. Explain what you are doing and why. You also may learn other issues upon which you can base an appeal.

Be very careful in how you word your appeal. Be sure to address the right issues in the right terms and using the right words. Once submitted, your appeal cannot be amended. Also, be sure to do it on time. Appeals not submitted by the deadline are invalid. For 2005, appeals must be submitted by April 26.

After submitting your appeal, you can request a meeting with the Assessor's Office to explain your appeal, but it's not required. In many cases, someone from that office will come to your house to check on your assertions and the validity of their data.

The Assessor has until Aug. 15 to respond. However, like many government offices, this is understaffed and cannot keep up with appeals and investigations. Therefore, they often simply reject all the appeals they cannot find time to evaluate.

If the County Assessor's Office denies your appeal, you can then appeal to the State Board of Equalization. This agency will then schedule a hearing in Tucson. You will appear and state your case. A representative of the County Assessor's Office will appear and state their's. The hearing is rather informal and you do not need a lawyer.

If you still don't like the result, you can appeal further to Tax Court. For that, however, you may want an attorney.

Caveats
The process with the County Assessor is about whether the assessed value is based on correct information, calculated properly and determined fairly. It is not the place to complain about taxes. To do that, you should get in touch with the Mayor and your City Council representative, your Pima County Supervisor and your local school board.

As a practical matter, unless there are major errors, reductions in valuation tend to be in small percentages of the total and the resulting tax savings may be small. The process of appealing is somewhat involved and takes quite a while to be resolved. Therefore, many people just drop the matter.

You should also carefully consider that, when you appeal, it opens the door for the Assessor to completely reevaluate your house and its valuation. If there are factors that may increase your valuation, you may not want to invite such scrutiny.

Special Cases
There are also provisions for certain special cases. Widows, widowers, and totally disabled people may quality for exemptions. Seniors may qualify to have the value of their homes "frozen." Under some circumstances, taxes may be deferred. See the Assessor's website for details.

For more information
Pima County Assessor's Office
115 N. Court Ave.
740-8630
www.asr.co.pima.az.us/ASRT/HTML/pservice/pservice.htm

Pima County Treasurer's Office
115 North Church Ave.
740-8341
http://www.to.pima.gov

Tucson Pima Public Library has books and other resources on property taxes and how to appeal. Check the catalog and ask at the reference desk and periodicals desk. You can also do this by telephone (791-4010) and online at www.tppl.org

Tucson Homeowners Alliance - By joining, you can call and get more information and practical advice from homeowners who have gone through the appeal process. Click here for information on how to get in touch with us.

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