Millions of homeowners are overpaying their property taxes or forgetting to claim various kinds of exemptions. Are you one of them?

Q1: What information will I need to use this service?

A1: Your property address. We use the address data to retrieve the assessed value and estimated market value of your property from your assessor's site and Zillow. You may also want to refine your appeals request by supplying additional data such as (lack of) improvements, amenities, views, etc. In case we can not readily get the data for your property, we will try to contact your local tax consultants/real estate professionals to do manual research to have your property tax lowered.

Q2: Will the Assessor notify me if my property is over-valued?

A2: No, the Assessor identifies the market value (or whatever value according to your local government's statute, such as Prop 13 taxable value for California) of properties as of the beginning of the tax year. Most assessors adopt "mass property tax valuation" or "blanket revaluation" to figure out the property values for whatever particular area that it is being done for.

They rarely look over the data of recently-sold comparable homes to get an ideaabout your home's worth, because annual analysis of every single parcel would be so expensive that it could virtually bankrupt the local government. As a result,it is easy to get distorted figures resulting in homeowners of similar properties paying significantly different property taxes.

Q3: Will the mortgage company notify me if I am over-paying my property tax?

A3: No, it's not mortgage company's responsibility to make sure you are paying your fair share of property taxes. It's mortgage company's interest to make sure you are sending in your property tax monthly (for those with impound accounts) on time. They will then hold it as long as possible before paying it to the tax collector accurately before deadline, usually once or twice a year.

Whether your property is over-assessed or not has nothing to do with the mortgage company. As a matter of fact, the more your property tax is, the more benefit your mortgage company will reap.

Q4: Why should I appeal the property tax?

A4: People complain more about income tax than their local taxes - their property taxes.

Local governments are much smarter. They decide how much we owe, and then leave it up to the mortgage company to conceal our tax payment as part of monthly mortgage payment (PITI - Principle, Interest, Tax, Insurance). For many impound accounts, people are hardly realize that we are paying it.

Another reason is that most people don't understand the process. We may even think it's not worth the trouble to fight these taxes. Not true!

Some think the appeal process takes a great deal of work and cost lots of money, and so does not worth the too much trouble for the remote chance of a small reward. Nothing can be further from the truth! You can appeal it by yourself and save lots of money with some of your time.

Q5: What is the parcel number or APN?

A5: This is the number assigned to your property by the Assessor. You can find this number on your Assessment notice or you can find this number when you use our service by entering your address when linked to the assessor's site.

Q6: Who is CutPropertyTax.org?

A6: CutPropertyTax.org is a free community site where members help each other to make sure they only pay their fair share of the property tax. The content of the site is provided by volunteers who are familiar with local property tax related topics.

We provide free property tax related info to homeowners. Our online automated property tax appeals service save homeowners time and money.

The website was set up by a group of professionals who worked for property tax services companies in the past, and have numerous years of experience in the industry.

CutPropertyTax.org is not a government agency, and not affiliated with any government agencies.

Q7: Can I submit more than one property on a single property tax appeal?

A7: No, a separate appeal form must be filed for each property. However, if you have more than one property, we will prepare the appropriate number of separate appeal forms for you to file at a discounted fee.

Q8: Do you represent me with the Assessor or at the Hearing?

A8: A: No. The site helps you check if you are overpaying your property taxes. Volunteers on this site help you with the appropriate appeal forms for the formal and\or informal property tax appeal.

Q9: How many people are overpaying their property taxes?

A9:The National Taxpayers Union estimates that as much as 60% of taxable property in the United States is over assessed. However, only 5% of homeowners protest their assessments. Most people are unsure of the process to lower their taxes or have never known anyone that has.

Q10: Is your data and info on this site accurate?

A10: We can not guarantee the accuracy of any data on this site. The content of this site (especially the wiki part) is provided by users, and can contain numerous inaccuracies or errors.

The site is a free property tax community site. Use this site at your own risk.

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