I reached out to Heller to see if my taxes could be grieved. Justin provided me with information about the process and was optimistic that they could be grieved. Justin was incredibly effective and informative and clearly has a passion for helping the community fight high taxes. I was provided updates throughout the process and won the fight. My experience could not have gone smoother, thanks to Justin for being my guide throughout the process. I will be referring him to help a few friends who need the service. I am extremely grateful for the help and the time spent on my case. Justin is an outstanding professional with years of knowledge. He is a real estate superstar!
Tammi Schmidt has been extremely insightful and knowledgeable. I never knew getting a break on my taxes was even an option until Tammi informed me and explained how seamless it was. Highly recommend using her services.
This office "Heller & Consultants tax Grievance" did a great Job than expected. In particular, 'Michele Lagrassa" kept her promises and always answered even to the smallest details and questions. I definitely want to recommend this office to all home owners for taxes Grieving.
Professional, dedicated and will stay with you till your every question is fully answered. HELLER saves me big money on my taxes every year. HELLER provides tax savings that I can spend on my grandchildren while retired on a fixed income.
With rapidly changing technologies and virtually unlimited access to information, agents have to adapt and find unique ways to accommodate their clients’ needs. Here are a few thoughts about being an indispensable agent.
1. Your marketing strategy.
In order to stay relevant, and in business, agents need effective marketing strategies. Effective advertisements feel authentic and organic and focus on lifestyle. Are you taking advantage of social media outlets? Facebook live will help you show up in more news feeds so your content gets seen by more people.
2. Customize your services.
Your customers want everything to be about them. Anything you send them should be tailored specifically to their interests and needs. Personalize their experience from beginning to end and include recommended additional services like home stagers and property tax grievance! Don’t limit your services to just the transaction; provide them with concierge-style services.
3. Create your brand.
Creating a brand is an absolute must when it comes to real estate. Your brand is what separates you and makes you stand out from the rest! Your brand should speak volumes about your services, knowledge and your ability to help them have a positive experience. What’s your tag line?!
4. Become an industry leader.
Although it takes is time, be consistent in your efforts. Establishing yourself as an industry expert will be your best asset. When you’re quoted in a news article, when you have a strong online presence, you become a greater asset to your client.
5. Be a wealth of knowledge.
Offer your audience knowledge on not only the current real estate market, but also on the lifestyle available in the local area. Your audience is looking at you as their guide not only for their home but also for the places they’ll shop and where their children will go to school. They rely on you to give them insight into everything there is to know about the area where they are focusing their search.
Before we answer that, we need to, first of all, define assessment. The assessment is practically the basis of the real estate tax bill. In general, this bill is your assessment times the tax rate. Your home’s assessment is a certain percentage (that may change on a yearly basis) of your property’s fair market value (FMV). So basically, homes that cost more have greater real estate taxes compared to homes that are priced lower.
On the other hand, issues may arise due to the fact that your tax’s basis is FMV, yet determining it can be quite difficult. Also, even when estimates are made, they can be eventually disputed with ease. Issues may also arise because sometimes, assessors lag behind the moves happening in the real estate market and therefore, assessments can get stale. The lawmakers in NY have actually admitted that making fair assessments is very difficult and that is why they worked hard in order to ensure that homeowners can use a special system that allows them to get access to a fair assessment.
The system is composed of 2 parts:
The 1st level: The homeowner files a complaint at the local assessment department where he requests that the assessment is reviewed. The homeowner’s complaint raises the issue that the assessment is a greater percentage of the FMV that the law allows. Next, the evidence is carefully reviewed by the assessor who may eventually decide to schedule an in-person negotiation with the homeowner prior to taking a decision.
The 2nd level: In the event, the homeowner doesn’t agree with the assessor’s decision, he can file a petition with the court for a Small Claims Assessment Review. This is practically a lawsuit and the fee for filing it is thirty dollars. After the lawsuit is filed, both sides need to provide relevant case data in order to defend their position. After analyzing the data, the court will make a final decision.
Filing your tax grievance on your own is certainly possible and in order to do so, you’ll only have to assess the market value of your property, followed by filling out your Grievance petition and finally writing a letter in support explaining your position. However, in doing so we highly recommend that you hire a professional who can help you with it. While it’s not actually mandatory that you do so, in our experience we have come to the conclusion that someone who has a lot of experience in this is going to help you go through the process a lot easier. So with that in mind, here are 5 reasons we believe hiring a professional to file your tax grievance is a good idea:
1. You only pay if you’re successful
In general, professionals are going to represent their clients in a tax grievancecomplaint for fees that range between forty and fifty percent of the tax savings in their first year. For the client, this is a great deal. On top of that, you don’t need to worry about paying anything unless you’re successful. Therefore, the has every incentive to improve his client’s tax savings.
In the event the client is successful, he is going to take advantage of the minimized assessment for a very long time and be required to pay the professional a small part of the savings he makes in the first year. Depending on the lawyer you hire, some of them may charge a lower fee based on the savings paid out over more than 1 year (for instance, one example would be twenty-five percent of each year’s savings for a total of 24 months). This is still a great deal. On the other hand, our recommendation is that you don’t hire professionals who charge upfront fees or professionals that charge a fee higher than approximately fifty percent of 12 months’ worth of tax savings.
2. Professionals can handle all the work on establishing a market value
Establishing market value can be difficult when filing the grievance, but luckily your professional has access to public records, but also to the info provided by the licensed real estate appraisers. He can also provide you a great evaluation of whether pursuing your tax grievance is a good idea and that’s because someone with a lot of experience in this can accurately gauge the tendencies of the local boards when evaluating various kinds of petitions.
3. Professionals are well accustomed to the Grievance Day hearing
Professionals can easily speak in open hearings and it’s highly recommended that you let one represent you on this day. For a layperson, the entire process can be quite confusing, but your attorney will certainly be able to successfully go through it.
4. It takes a lot of time to grieve your taxes
Tax grievances can be very time consuming, since they involve a lot of research, filling out forms, writing support letters and finally preparing for and attending the hearing. Therefore, if you think you cannot handle this on your own, then it’s best to hire a professional to help you with it.
5. If you don’t win the grievance, the professional can handle your appeal
If you’re not successful, then you should consider hiring a professional in order to help you handle the grievance appeal on your behalf. In fact, it’s highly recommended that you hire one to represent you in the first administrative hearing in front of the board. This way, he’ll learn more about the facts and use that information to better represent you, his client. So if you’re going to need to pay for hiring a professional anyway in the event your petition isn’t successful, then you may want to consider hiring one to handle your case in its entirety.
It’s true that the US tax code is indeed intimidating and because of that, many Americans don’t really want to dig through IRS forms and receipts each spring. The good news is that if you’re the proud owner of a home, then you can take advantage of many deductions that can save you a lot of money in taxes this year. Because of that, it’s certainly not a good idea to let the fear of paperwork intimidate you.
If you’re looking for the best tax breaks, you could easily get the biggest bang for your dollar from your home deductions. If you overlook them, then they may just cost you.
For instance, let’s take the most popular deduction, the interest that you have to pay on your home mortgage. Collectively, US taxpayers get a break of approximately one hundred billion dollars a year from this item alone.
As a homeowner, you certainly have access to such breaks plus many others which can save you a lot of money every year. Here are the 7 biggest ones we think you should know about.
Mortgage Interest
This is the most popular break for taxpayers. So if you have a thirty-year mortgage on a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar home, this is going to result in approximately ten thousand dollars interest payments over the first year. You should also not forget about the condo or vacation home you bought, since you can easily use the interest you paid on those, as well.
Real Estate Taxes
The deduction for local properties is yet another great tax break for Suffolk and Nassau County homeowners and the good news because you live on Long Island, it can be pretty high. In a lot of ways, this tax break is more common than many others, including the mortgage interest deduction. While many people own a property and do not have a mortgage, everyone pays real estate tax.
Mortgage Insurance
If you’ve borrowed and do not have twenty percent equity in your home, then you have to get PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance). This is required for the protection of the lender, in case the loan defaults. PMIs usually costs between point five and one percent of the entire loan amount per annum, so if you have a large loan balance, then deducting these payments can add up fast.
Mortgage Points
When you have 1 point on your home mortgage, that point is valued at one percent of the total loan amount and it has to be paid upfront to the lender in order to minimize your total interest rate. Because of that, many lenders pay points for the purpose of getting a better lending rate and the good news is that they’re also going to get a tax break.
However, it’s only possible to deduct the amount of the points paid in the year you’ve paid them, so if you bought a home in the past year and paid points, then make sure you don’t miss this break.
Casualty Losses
If your home is damaged by fire or a storm, then you can offset some of the losses thanks to the tax break provided by the IRS. Even if you do have a home insurance policy, you cannot double-dip and get compensated twice for the losses. However, if you have a great insurance policy, you may still receive some tax benefits. You can easily find out how much (if any) of your losses are tax-deductible by doing some simple math on Form 4684.
Home Office
In case you’re self-employed and own a home that meets IRS standards, you can take advantage of some pretty great tax benefits. For example, let’s say that your home office represents five percent of your home’s entire square footage. In this case, you’re eligible to deduct five percent off your property’s taxes, insurance, utilities, but also general repairs. Just keep in mind that there are strict rules in place on what constitutes a home office that sees exclusive or regular use. Because of that, you need to speak to your tax consultant or check Publication 587 to verify whether you qualify for this deduction or not.
Cost Basis
As a single taxpayer, you can sell your main residence for a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar tax-free gain, while if you’re married, then you can do so for double that amount. However, if you managed to maintain accurate records of any capital expenses on your property, then it’s easy to increase the tax-free gains beyond those limits. While $500 thousand dollars sounds like a lot of money, over a thirty-year mortgage there can be a major appreciation in your real estate market. As a result, even if this year you won’t actually use the documents from your capital improvements, make sure to keep them until you plan on selling your property.
Residential Energy Credit
When it comes to big-ticket systems, such as geothermal heating units and solar panels, you get a thirty percent tax break from the REEPC (Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit). This also includes smaller amounts on items such as water heaters. It’s true that compared to the rest of the breaks, these ones are smaller, but the good news is that they’re a credit and not a reduction.
Did you know that you can actually reduce your property’s tax bill if you appealthe value assigned to your property by the taxman? In fact, it’s the estimated value that is used for the purpose of calculating your taxes. If you want to reduce your taxes, the best way is to prove your property is worth less than its estimated value. Doing so is easy by researching online or calling your realtor. If in your research you discover that you’re right about this, then the process for appealing can take up to 18-24 months to finalize.
Read your assessment letter
Nassau & Suffolk Counties regularly estimate the real estate they tax. This means that when they receive your estimation, it’s going to contain info regarding your property (such as legal description and lot size), but also the estimated value of your land and property. To calculate your property tax, the local government will multiply your property’s assessed value by the local tax rate(values vary from town to town). However, if you think that your home’s value is a lot higher than its actual value, you should dispute it right away.
Consider these 5 steps when challenging your assessment:
1. Assess whether an appeal is worth your time
The amount of time and effort you may choose to put into a dispute is influenced by the stakes. In 2015, the median property tax was in Suffolk County was $7,192, Nassau County was even higher with a median of $8,711. That’s around 1.79 percent of the approximate $487 thousand median value property. Therefore, if you manage to reduce your home’s assessed value by 15% at a tax rate of 10 percent, you’ll save $1,838 dollars a year in the process.
However, if you live in certain parts of Nassau County, where the tax rates are about 15% of a property’s value, potential savings are even higher. The same thing is true for communities with property prices well above the Nassau and Suffolk’s median.
2. Verify the data
Ensuring the info about your property is accurate is very important. Is the size of the lot accurate? How about the number of fireplaces and/or bathrooms? If there are errors among the facts, then you should dispute them right away.
3. Get the comps
You may want to speak to a realtor and have him find 3 to 5 similar properties that sold recently. It’s also a good idea that you use websites such as realtor dot com to learn more about the average value of properties that are comparable to yours in terms of location, condition, style and also size. On the other hand, if you’re not short on cash, you could pay 350 and 600 dollars to hire an appraiser for the purpose of getting a professional opinion regarding your property’s value.
After you manage to determine the comps, verify the assessments on those houses. If your local government doesn’t maintain public databases, request a neighbor to share tax info or look for help from a real estate agent. If the estimation on their comps is lower, you can dispute yours if it’s too high.
Despite the possibility that the assessments are similar, individuals can still show that the comps are superior to theirs and therefore take advantage of relief based on equity. It could be that your neighbor added something to his property while you were having a hard time cleaning up storm damage. If this is the case, then you could no longer say that the properties are comparable.
4. Present your case
After careful research, get in touch with a local assessor. The majority of them will be willing to (informally) talk about your assessment on the phone. However, if the assessor’s review isn’t satisfactory to you or if he doesn’t want to discuss it on the phone, you may want to request a formal review.
Be mindful of procedures and deadlines. A standard review doesn’t require you to appear in person, yet it can take as little as 30 days and as long as 90 days. When it’s done, you’ll receive a written decision.
5. If you don’t like the review, appeal it
If you’re not satisfied with the review, the decision can be easily appealed to in New York State Supreme Courtand it’s your choice whether you hire an attorney or property tax grievancefirm for it or not. In case you’ll find yourself before a judge, the dispute can take up to a year to resolve. Fortunately, homeowners with good cases generally triumph and more than 66% of the tax appeals in Nassau County.
Things to bear in mind when weighing an appeal:
Another way to save on your property tax is to, first of all, establish if you qualify for property tax exemptions based on factors such as military service, disability, etc.
Only your real estate assessment can be lowered by the appeals board and not the rate at which you are taxed.
Suffolk County is the only county in the country that does not re-assess on a regular basis. This means the only way to reduce your tax bill is to file a property tax grievance. DEADLINE – May 21st, 2024 – APPLY NOW!
If you believe you are over-assessed, you have a right to protest your home’s assessment – which could mean tax dollars in your pocket. Let’s face it, in this economy, every dollar counts!
The 2024 Tax Grievance season is here and it is setting up to be a big one!
Important facts about Suffolk County Property Tax Grievance Process:
Tax Grievance deadline of May 21, 2024, applies to the following townships: East Hampton, South Hampton, Brookhaven, Riverhead, Babylon, Huntington, Shelter Island, Southold, Islip, and Smithtown.
Filing a Property Tax Grievance cannot raise your Property Taxes.
Any homeowners in Suffolk County that miss the Property Tax Grievance deadline of May 21, 2024, must wait until May 2025.
If you want to lower your Monthly Mortgage Bill and save money, this is one of the easiest ways.
No one will visit your home from the Assessor’s or our office.
Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Hire A Tax Grievance Firm To File Your Tax Grievance
Filing your tax grievance on your own is certainly possible and to do this, you’ll only have to carefully research the value of your property, proceed with filling out your Grievance petition and lastly, you just have to write a letter in support that details your position. While doing so on your own may seem easy and simple, there’s plenty of room for mistakes and that is why we recommend that you hire a professional firm who can help you with this. In our experience, they have a much better track record of grieving taxes successfully compared to homeowners. To support our opinion and recommendation, below we’re going to take a better look at some of the top 5 reasons why it’s best that you retain a lawyer for the purpose of filing your tax grievance.
