How can I calculate property taxes myself?


Owning a piece of property has its own hassles and a sizable amount has to be paid as property taxes. You’ll have to first have the property assessed properly. You need to arrive at the value of the land in the particular location, and the higher the land value, the higher the property taxes. Moreover, the value of the land keeps appreciating and every year the figures are bound to change.

You will have to approach the local property assessor whose specific job is to assess properties, and he or she is the best person who can calculate the value of your home. Alternatively, you may contact the local tax authority. These days there are several online tools that will help you look up your property’s value. All you need to do is fill in your address and the tool will calculate using the current rate of taxes and help you arrive at a figure.

One other alternative is to approach any of the financial institutions who can give you estimates for the value of your home, based on which you can calculate your tax liability. In order to get the exact value of your home you need to calculate the current land value and take into account the improvements carried out on your house, this will add to the value of the house and the tax amount will be based on the new value. Here again, the local assessor should be able to help you out to arrive at a value for the land and your home.

The next thing you need to do is to find out the current tax rates being charged by the government. The property tax is arrived at on a fixed percentage of the value of the property. Hence, the tax rates can vary from year to year and there could a steep increase if the county is facing financial difficulties as it will try to make it up by increasing the tax rates. Based on the current valuation of the property and the rate of taxes being charged, it should be easy to arrive at the approximate tax amount that needs to be paid by you towards property taxes.

However, if you are not too sure that you have got the figures right, you need to either contact a property management agency or a tax consultant who will be able to guide you better. Bear in mind though, if the idea is to save on consultation fees, you should maybe take the risk and submit the taxes based on your own calculations.