Property Tax Attorney in Clermont and Lake County Florida
What You Should Know About Florida’s Property Tax System
Property tax is levied as of January 1 annually based on the market value of real and tangible personal property. Property owners receive their tax bills in November and payment is due by March 31 of the following year.
Local property appraisers annually assess each privately owned property in Florida based on market value. Property appraisers also administer exemptions. Local governments (taxing authorities) set the “millage rate,” which is the rate at which properties are taxed. After accounting for certain exemptions, differentials, and limitations, the “taxable value” is multiplied by the millage rate to determine the dollar amount of the tax.
Property tax, or millage tax, is an ad valorem tax that an owner is required to pay on the value of the property being taxed. Property tax can be defined as “generally, tax imposed by municipalities upon owners of real property within their jurisdiction based on the value of such property.”
There are three species or types of property: Land, Improvements to Land (immovable man-made objects; i.e., buildings), and Personal (movable man made objects). Real estate, real property or realty are all terms for the combination of land and improvements. The taxing authority requires and/or performs an appraisal of the monetary value of the property, and tax is assessed in proportion to that value. Forms of property tax used vary between countries and jurisdictions.
The special assessment tax may often be confused with the property tax. These are two distinct forms of taxation: one (ad valorem tax) relies upon the fair market value of the property being taxed for justification, and the other (special assessment) relies upon a special enhancement called a “benefit” for its justification.
The property tax rate is often given as a percentage. It may also be expressed as a permille (amount of tax per thousand currency units of property value), which is also known as a millage rate or mill levy. (A mill is also one-thousandth of a currency unit.) To calculate the property tax, the authority will multiply the assessed value of the property by the mill rate and then divide by 1,000. For example, a property with an assessed value of US $50,000 located in a municipality with a mill rate of 20 mills would have a property tax bill of US $1,000 per year. In more familiar terms, dividing the mills by 10 (moving the decimal point to the left by one) yields the percentage rate 0 mills = 2.0%.
Call or email the law office of Boyette, Cummins & Nailos, PLLC, for your free consultation*. We will sit down with you and discuss all of your options regarding your real estate needs.
