Federal income taxes are not the only taxes many across the U.S. have to pay every year. Property taxes are yet another burden homeowners face, but unlike with Federal income taxes (which can often be adjusted by digging through possible deductions), a homeowner can actually appeal their property tax. The problem is that this process is very confusing, and while 20-25% of U.S. homeowners are likely to be overpaying their property taxes each year, many don’t know that they can either can even appeal the tax, let alone know how.
A new company called ValueAppeal is a pioneering property tax appeal service developed to ensure that homeowners are not overpaying their property taxes. For free, any homeowner can simply type in their address at ValueAppeal.comto see if they are a homeowner overpaying, and ValueAppeal’s technology instantly analyzes a property address and identifies, based on comparable sales data and other localized criteria, whether the homeowner is likely to be overpaying. If ValueAppeal determines that the homeowner is not likely to be overpaying, it will not allow them to proceed with developing an appeal, which protects customer interests while also saving local assessor’s offices from having to deal with frivolous appeals. For those homeowners identified as likely to be overpaying, ValueAppeal provides an easy-to-use service to develop a complete tax appeal online in minutes, eliminating the many hours or even days that a more complicated ‘traditional’ appeal process requires.
Charlie Walsh, ValueAppeal founder and CEO, says that “There are more than 3,000 counties and 14,000 property tax jurisdictions in the U.S. Almost all have very different and specific rules and regulations when it comes to property tax appeals that need to be followed exactly. We’ve spent the past four years baking all of these considerations into ValueAppeal’s algorithm to provide users with the most accurate data and indications as to whether or not they’re overpaying.”
Walsh explained that “From a user-experience standpoint, we developed ValueAppeal to do in minutes what used to take many hours or even days for the average homeowner to do on their own. Perhaps our most appreciated offer is that for free, any homeowner can type in their property address at ValueAppeal.com to get an immediate analysis as to whether or not they’re likely to be overpaying their property taxes. For the 75-80% of homeowners who are not overpaying, we provide peace of-mind and save them from spending time and money on filing an appeal that is unlikely to be successful.” He added, “We’ve found that roughly 25% of homeowners in the US are overpaying their property taxes, 50% are about right, and 25% are actually underpaying. There is huge variance by jurisdiction, as some areas may only have 5% or less overpaying and others can be at more than 40% of homeowners overpaying.”
The average homeowner who has used ValueAppeal so far has saved $1,346 and, the company says that results for appeals that were filed during the first half of 2012 indicated even greater savings. And while this may not necessarily help with the taxes you owe on Monday, ValueAppeal may just help you save on those other taxes you owe later this year.
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