February 20, 2013

New Philadelphia AVI | Appeal your tax assessment

The city’s new property tax assessments are going to save one neighbor a lot of money and increase another’s just as much, if not more.  The bottom line is that there is very little uniformity with this system.  This new system is known as the Actual Value Initiative and assessments are based on 100% of market values.

So we looked at this map provided to the public by AxisPhilly and we studied the increases projected in the dark red sections of the map.  Let’s just say some people will have no choice but to appeal since their tax burden increased exponentially.

Lets take a look at one example. 1075 Southampton Road, Philadelphia, PA 19116.  It looks like its a small little private club who’s taxes are going up from $14.852 to $77,209. That’s some increase and could possibly put this venue out of business and devalue the real estate tremendously and may even make it unmarketable.  If it is an income producing property, the increased tax burden may also affect the rate of return and may cause the property to go from positive to negative cash-flow and deter any lender to finance future loans against the property.

Real estate taxes not only have an affect on the home owner’s ability to pay the taxes, but also on the homeowner’s ability to sell it as well.  If the taxes are high on a property, it can devalue it significantly as a prospective buyer may look at another property that has a lower tax burden.

You can certainly use the City’s AVI Calculator, however, this wont tell you if your property’s tax assessment is consistent with the surrounding area and reflects the recent sales.

The city established two levels of review which requires you to file an Application with supporting documents by March 31, 2013. If an agreement cannot be reached a formal appeal with the Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT) can be filed by the first Monday in October 2013 (October 7, 2013).

The Law Offices of Michael Kuldiner, P.C. is a full service law firm with significant experience in reducing real estate tax assessments and has been very successful in providing its clients with savings over the past few years. We offer our services strictly on a contingency basis.

These are some of the results we achieved for our commercial and residential clients in the recent years:

• XX Sunflower Way, Huntingdon Valley, PA – Tax reduction of 33%

• XXX Seitz Rd., Schwenksville, PA – Tax reduction of 44%

• XXXX 1602 Manning Blvd., Levittown PA – Tax reduction of 41%

• XXX Greycliffe Ln, Maple Glen, PA – Tax reduction of 27%

• XXX Christian St, Philadelphia, PA – Tax reduction of 28%

Just like anything in life, you need to get a professional involved who has experience working with the city’s assessors and their evaluators.  Let us appeal your tax assessment – contact us and let us help you navigate through this complicated process and obtain the best results possible.

You may fill out a form at the top right of our page, email us at info@phillyesq.com or call us at (215) 942-2100 and we will be able to give you a preliminary review of your 2014 assessment.