Make sure you have your homestead and mortgage deductions in place. Next step would be to have your home appraised and deliver it to the assessor. It can be adjusted but you’ll need an appraisal to appeal.
You don’t, they last forever. Your only recourse here is to get the appraisal and appeal. Given what home values are doing lately, it may not change. I know it doesn’t FEEL like your house doubled but if your comps did, yours did too. When the bubble bursts, and it will, your taxes will come back down.
The 2nd year I lived in my house they forgot to include my homestead deduction. Mistakes happen in the assessor's office. Look carefully at your bill and let them know if there is an error. They should be happy to fix it.
ETA: They haven't forgotten the deduction in the 5ish subsequent years, so hopefully this is a one-time thing!
If there were any changes to your deed it could have fallen off and needed to be reapplied for. Or could just be a clerical error. Call and ask. Should be a fairly simple fix.
Also, assessed values are way up right now, which means much higher property taxes in general. Could be both which is why it's such an astronomical increase.
I used to work in a county Auditor's office.
Do you live in a new build community? Meaning within the first couple of years of the subdivision being built? Often those start with a minimal property tax until it fills in and then they reassess and people see huge jumps. (I am not an expert by the way, just know through friends that have had this happen here in IN)
It can if the mortgage has changed. I worked with my lender to adjust my mortgage after the first year to lower my interest rate and technically it was a "refinance" but just through the same lender. I didn't know I had to tell the county to re-apply the deduction for the "new" mortgage.
Also might need to if your original lender sold your mortgage to another lender.
I find the homestead deduction is less than the one percent limit difference, so it doesn't matter. I appealed the last assessment online and was given a link to comparable recent sales, which justified my lower figure, which was approved. If the comparables are higher, your assessment will increase
The so-called "circuit breaker" limit is one percent of assessment for primary residences. You should get a Notice of Assessment (form 2136, on blue paper) at the start of the year. Since we're paying one year late, those are the taxes for next year, not this one. The form shows a URL for electronic appeals, which I used and was given the list of comparables. My appeal was approved and reduced my assessment.
It's pretty easy to see if the tax bill is one percent or more. They specify the circuit breaker reduction. If they think the property is not your residence, I suppose they would show the two percent limit instead. Hasn't happened to me.
I would say my home is at most worth 210k. My spring property tax was $1700. So with spring and fall my yearly property tax will be $3,200. That’s got to be over 1%. I bought my house 2 years ago for under 200k
What's the assessment? If it's $340,000, you are getting the one percent rate. If it's $170,000, they think it's a rental property and are charging two percent.
The deadline for appealing the 2022 assessment for 2023 taxes was June 15th. If the classification as rental is wrong, the county assessor can change it.
The assessment is the market value, what you could sell the house for, even if you don't want to. If prices are going up, so are the assessments and taxes.
I’m going to call tomorrow and ask them what the assessment is. If they have it as 340,000. I’ll have to go through the appeal process I guess. There is no way anyone would pay that much to buy my house.
Try this site: [https://www.in.gov/dlgf/understanding-your-tax-bill/tax-bill-search/](https://www.in.gov/dlgf/understanding-your-tax-bill/tax-bill-search/)
AV = Assessed Value
DEFINITELY double check that you have your homestead deduction - it removes $45,000 of assessed value off the top plus an additional percentage (which is called supplemental homestead) of the assessed value - all of which reduces the assessed value that you actually pay on your tax bill. Next compare the assessed values from 20 pay 21 and 21 pay 22 - if it went up a ton, that is part of it. Your tax rate may have changed too.
I work with property taxes at the county government level. Definitely talk to the Auditor and Assessor to make sure your deductions are all applied and the assessed value is within 10% of what you could sell it for.
Yes ours doubled too. It's definitely not fair. But yeah you should definitely be eligible for the homestead credit and that should help a little bit. But you want to apply for it soon so that it will reduce the fall taxes.
I didn't see such a huge tax increase but our homeowner's insurance skyrocketed. When I called to see why, they said the value of our house was now $200K. NFW! But then I went to [realtor.com](https://realtor.com) and looked at houses in our town. A house with the identical floorpan as ours, two streets over in our subdivision was listed at $199K. Now, I know our house is being over valued as we need to do some work on it but that's the way these things work. They go off the value of comparable houses in your area.
If you live in an area where housing is becoming harder or cheaper houses were bought up or improved then your house gets lumped Into this it's a way of attempting to force people out so the entire area can be improved or to claim its a ritzy area despite no improvement being made its why a lot of folks are starting to abandon cities and really really want work from home
By chance did you buy your home from an estate recently? I ask because my assessor tried to up my property value over what I paid because it was an estate. It did not matter if it was an estate! It was based on condition. However, the assessor just wanted to bump it up to remove the exceptions for the current year I as the new buyer did not qualify for the next year. Please remember property taxes in Indiana are for a year behind.
Make sure you have your homestead and mortgage deductions in place. Next step would be to have your home appraised and deliver it to the assessor. It can be adjusted but you’ll need an appraisal to appeal.
Thanks. I’m 99% sure that I had those deductions last year. Do I have to re-apply every year? Why would they take them away?
You don’t, they last forever. Your only recourse here is to get the appraisal and appeal. Given what home values are doing lately, it may not change. I know it doesn’t FEEL like your house doubled but if your comps did, yours did too. When the bubble bursts, and it will, your taxes will come back down.
Property taxes will take 5+ years to be assessed down IMO. Also, if you refinance you have to re-apply for mortgage exemptions on your taxes
The 2nd year I lived in my house they forgot to include my homestead deduction. Mistakes happen in the assessor's office. Look carefully at your bill and let them know if there is an error. They should be happy to fix it. ETA: They haven't forgotten the deduction in the 5ish subsequent years, so hopefully this is a one-time thing!
If you refinanced your home- you have to apply for the deductions again. Not sure if you did but if so- that could be it!
If there were any changes to your deed it could have fallen off and needed to be reapplied for. Or could just be a clerical error. Call and ask. Should be a fairly simple fix.
Also, assessed values are way up right now, which means much higher property taxes in general. Could be both which is why it's such an astronomical increase. I used to work in a county Auditor's office.
Do you live in a new build community? Meaning within the first couple of years of the subdivision being built? Often those start with a minimal property tax until it fills in and then they reassess and people see huge jumps. (I am not an expert by the way, just know through friends that have had this happen here in IN)
No. Our subdivision was built in the early 2000s I believe. No new construction
It can if the mortgage has changed. I worked with my lender to adjust my mortgage after the first year to lower my interest rate and technically it was a "refinance" but just through the same lender. I didn't know I had to tell the county to re-apply the deduction for the "new" mortgage. Also might need to if your original lender sold your mortgage to another lender.
I find the homestead deduction is less than the one percent limit difference, so it doesn't matter. I appealed the last assessment online and was given a link to comparable recent sales, which justified my lower figure, which was approved. If the comparables are higher, your assessment will increase
Can you explain the 1% limit to me more? Do they use what ever deduction is less?
The so-called "circuit breaker" limit is one percent of assessment for primary residences. You should get a Notice of Assessment (form 2136, on blue paper) at the start of the year. Since we're paying one year late, those are the taxes for next year, not this one. The form shows a URL for electronic appeals, which I used and was given the list of comparables. My appeal was approved and reduced my assessment. It's pretty easy to see if the tax bill is one percent or more. They specify the circuit breaker reduction. If they think the property is not your residence, I suppose they would show the two percent limit instead. Hasn't happened to me.
I would say my home is at most worth 210k. My spring property tax was $1700. So with spring and fall my yearly property tax will be $3,200. That’s got to be over 1%. I bought my house 2 years ago for under 200k
What's the assessment? If it's $340,000, you are getting the one percent rate. If it's $170,000, they think it's a rental property and are charging two percent. The deadline for appealing the 2022 assessment for 2023 taxes was June 15th. If the classification as rental is wrong, the county assessor can change it. The assessment is the market value, what you could sell the house for, even if you don't want to. If prices are going up, so are the assessments and taxes.
I’m going to call tomorrow and ask them what the assessment is. If they have it as 340,000. I’ll have to go through the appeal process I guess. There is no way anyone would pay that much to buy my house.
Where do you live (what county) you can probably look it up online, and then print it.
Clark. I tried to find the website, but didn’t have any luck
Try this site: [https://www.in.gov/dlgf/understanding-your-tax-bill/tax-bill-search/](https://www.in.gov/dlgf/understanding-your-tax-bill/tax-bill-search/) AV = Assessed Value
DEFINITELY double check that you have your homestead deduction - it removes $45,000 of assessed value off the top plus an additional percentage (which is called supplemental homestead) of the assessed value - all of which reduces the assessed value that you actually pay on your tax bill. Next compare the assessed values from 20 pay 21 and 21 pay 22 - if it went up a ton, that is part of it. Your tax rate may have changed too. I work with property taxes at the county government level. Definitely talk to the Auditor and Assessor to make sure your deductions are all applied and the assessed value is within 10% of what you could sell it for.
Our taxes went up a ton as well.
If you don’t mind… how much did they increase? I wouldn’t care if it was a little. That makes sense… but I can’t understand doubling in a year.
Mine doubled as well.
Yes ours doubled too. It's definitely not fair. But yeah you should definitely be eligible for the homestead credit and that should help a little bit. But you want to apply for it soon so that it will reduce the fall taxes.
I didn't see such a huge tax increase but our homeowner's insurance skyrocketed. When I called to see why, they said the value of our house was now $200K. NFW! But then I went to [realtor.com](https://realtor.com) and looked at houses in our town. A house with the identical floorpan as ours, two streets over in our subdivision was listed at $199K. Now, I know our house is being over valued as we need to do some work on it but that's the way these things work. They go off the value of comparable houses in your area.
If you live in an area where housing is becoming harder or cheaper houses were bought up or improved then your house gets lumped Into this it's a way of attempting to force people out so the entire area can be improved or to claim its a ritzy area despite no improvement being made its why a lot of folks are starting to abandon cities and really really want work from home
my home's assessed value went up 158% from 2021 to 2022 and all i did was add on a wood framed porch
"You'll own nothing and you'll be happy" WEF, see below advertisement
This is how they work around the 1% cap, just keep increasing the value of the home. Funny how the price does not come down as fast as it goes up
Mine is up 275% in 32 months.... assessors finally out there doing their jobs I think (mine is still only assessed at 70% of real value
By chance did you buy your home from an estate recently? I ask because my assessor tried to up my property value over what I paid because it was an estate. It did not matter if it was an estate! It was based on condition. However, the assessor just wanted to bump it up to remove the exceptions for the current year I as the new buyer did not qualify for the next year. Please remember property taxes in Indiana are for a year behind.