Ultimate Philadelphia County Real Property Tax Guide for 2024
Guide Overview
By reading this rundown, you’ll receive a good perception of real estate taxes in Philadelphia County and what you should be aware of when your bill is received. If you are contemplating becoming a resident or just planning to invest in Philadelphia County real estate, you’ll discover whether Philadelphia County property tax laws work for you or you’d rather hunt for another locale.
Average Property Tax Rate in Philadelphia County
Philadelphia County Property Taxes Range
Philadelphia County Property Taxes Range
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You May Be Charged an Unfair Property Tax Amount
Perhaps you aren’t aware of your property levy being higher than appropriate according to your property’s real worth. No mystery though when presumed similar properties in locales are appraised at the same fair market value predicated upon just a few — again presupposed — similar properties’ estimated values. In addition, appraisers occasionally make mistakes. Still there’s a procedure to appeal the accuracy of your tax assessment and have it corrected when it’s an excessive appraisal.
If you’ve remortgaged recently, be certain identical billings haven’t been levied. Examine your property’s billing statement carefully. Levy statements are quickly accessible on the web for everyone to examine. Compare your home’s appraised evaluation with similar ones – particularly with just sold in your area. Research recent rises or weakenings in property value trends.
In the event you turn up what seems to be a too high tax assessment, it’s time to respond quickly. A no-brainer or conflicted whether to press on with an appeal or not, don’t distress. The only expense for many protest firms’ involvement is a percentage of any tax saving uncovered. More details to follow.
What Is a Tax Protest Procedure?
When you have reason to believe that your property tax value is excessively high, you can always question the assessment. Philadelphia County is responsible for computing the tax value of your property, and that is where you will file your protest.
The forms you need and the procedures you’ll comply with are found at the county tax office or on their website. Take your time going over all the rules before you begin. Your protest submission may not be approved if you don’t precisely finish the documents on time.
The county will send you a notice of the property tax assessment and how much time you have to file your protest. Make certain that you begin preparing your filing immediately so that you do not run out of time.
Request a duplicate of the assessment along with information that was used for the county’s calculations. The protest may depend on this. If the assessment methodology wasn’t adhered to properly or the wrong comparison properties were included, you might have a strong case for a reassessment.
If you submit a detailed package with validating proof, the county might make a decision without making you proceed with an official appeal. If not, you will be required to attend a review panel and submit your case in detail. They will only be interested in seeing proof that the valuation is incorrect and nothing else. General complaints about property tax rates or how quickly property tax values have grown are irrelevant to your appeal.
If you are not satisfied with the panel’s decision, you are allowed to appeal to a state-level board or panel. If you have to go to court, it may make sense to get service of one of the best property tax attorneys in Philadelphia County PA.
It is your right to question your property’s tax value appraisal. But, the time it takes to go through a protest might not be called for if the assessment increase doesn’t boost your payment significantly. Check your real property tax bill, including any tax exemptions that apply to your property. Then ask yourself if the size of the increase is worth the time and effort it requires to challenge the valuation.
How to Get Your Taxes Reduced for Free?
Sometimes consultants doing these appeals ask for commission on a ”depending upon” basis. Such an arrangement means the fee you pay won’t exceed a percentage of any tax reduction. Without tax savings, you owe nothing!
Protest companies are encouraged to fully explore your bill, prepare for and participate in conferences, ferret out mistakes, discover missing exemptions, and prepare for any court involvement. Exemptions particularly have proven to be a productive sector for adding new ones and supporting any being questioned.
Concerning residential property, two methods are normally employed when protesting your billing. Most often, when contesting taxes your re-evaluation will be predicated on a “sales comparison” or an “unequal appraisal”. Undertaken community-wide, sales comparisons estimate market value employing current sale prices while unequal appraisals disclose alike homes having inordinately high estimated values.
Often a sales comparison methodology is the pick of smaller firms. Frequently required, complete reevaluations are conducted personally. Directed by State-licensed appraisers, such reassessments are virtually beyond dispute. Only an exhaustive re-evaluation of the full appraisal procedure might possibly upset the tax consultant’s conclusions. This approach estimates a subject property’s true market value using recent comparable sales results from other similar properties in the area.
Big firms in particular utilize an unequal appraisal method for tax savings even when estimated values aren’t as high as existing market values. Locally these consultants first group similar properties of relatively equal assessed value together. Then comes a comparison of these properties’ respective tax assessment amounts within each group. Properties having a disparity with tax assessed being 10 percent or more above the representative median level will be singled out for more study. Clients are frequently charged a percentage applied to any tax decreases, so they don’t pay out-of-pocket cost or any fee at all without reaping some tax cutback.
Select a tax professional meeting your needs in this list of the best property tax protest companies in Philadelphia County PA.
How Does Philadelphia County Real Estate Tax Work?
Pennsylvania code provides several thousand local public districts the right to levy property taxes. Typically taxing entities’ tax levies are combined under one notice from the county. Collections are then distributed to associated parties as predetermined. Overall, there are three stages to real estate taxation: establishing tax levies, estimating values, and then receiving the tax.
Taxing units include city, county governments, and many special districts like public schools. Authorized as legal governmental entities, they’re controlled by elected officials or appointed officers. They work in a separate area such as within city limits or special purpose units including recreation parks, water treatment plants, and fire districts.
The city’s carrying out of real estate taxation cannot disregard the state’s constitutional rules. All property not eligible for exemption is required to be taxed equally and uniformly on one present market value basis. Suitable communication of any rate hike is also a requisite.
Within those confines, the city sets tax levies. However left to the county are evaluating real estate, issuing assessments, collecting the levies, conducting compliance efforts, and resolving conflicts.
Real estate estimates are carried out by the county. Again, the state has mandated guidelines which county real estate appraisers are obliged to observe. This is to make sure real property appraisals are mostly completed equitably. This is a prime area to look carefully for appraisal disparities and oversights.
In the U.S., three ways for establishing real estate value dominate (with variations). The Sales Comparison method entails contrasting current like houses’ selling prices in the same neighborhood. An Income Method for commercial properties gauges the potential lease income to establish current fair market worth. One variation of the Cost approach adds major improvement outlays to the initial commercial property investment while deducting allowable depreciation.
An assessor from the county’s office estimates your real estate’s worth. That value is taken times a total tax levy, i.e. the total of rates made by all related governing entities. They range from the county to city, school district, and different special purpose entities such as sewage treatment plants, water parks, and transportation facilities.
Who and How Determines Philadelphia County Property Tax Rates?
County assessors are mandated by the Pennsylvania constitution to set real estate market values. These evaluations must be recorded without deference to revenue consequences.
Pennsylvania laws require new property evaluations on a recurring basis. Most often new assessments employ a broad-based strategy applied to all similar property in the same locality without individual property tours. Missing separate property visits, unique property characteristics, perhaps impacting property’s market value, are passed over.
Back in the day, when new properties were constructed, appraisers amassed descriptive tax rolls. This roll describes by address all properties within a specific locale. When constructed, structures were categorized by such characteristics as building type, size, and year built. Other details such as age and location were also considered when making up these groups by class, which then had market values assigned en masse. Without a tour, the only current, verified data assessors have to rely upon during periodic new estimates are recent sales stats.
To ensure some degree of equitable market value evaluating, Pennsylvania has implemented this process across the state. While this sweeping operation helps manage an otherwise overwhelming task, it also promises inexact appraisal outcomes. This methodology innately affords room for many protest opportunities.
Once market values are established, your city along with other county public units will calculate tax levies independently. A composite rate will produce expected total tax receipts and also generate each taxpayer’s assessment amount. In this basic budgetary undertaking, county and local public directors determine yearly spending. After this it’s a matter of determining what combined tax rate is needed to correspond with that budget. In theory, tax amount should be same as the amount of all annual funding.
Counties, cities, hospital districts, special purpose districts, such as sewage treatment plants and others, make up hundreds such public entities in the state. All of them independently compute the needed tax levy to cover their planned spendings. Nearly all the sub-county entities have agreements for Philadelphia County to assess and collect their tax.
Traditionally this budgetary and tax levy-setting routine is augmented by public hearings called to discuss budget outlays and tax issues. Note too that under state law, you can call for a vote on proposed rate hikes over set limits.
Explicitly stated under the state Constitution, taxing entities, such as the city, have restrictions on raising taxes. Tax rates are prohibited from being increased before informing the public. Post-notice, a public hearing must be conducted to explain the proposal.
If Philadelphia County property tax rates have been too high for you and now you have delinquent property tax payments, you may want to obtain a quick property tax loan from lenders in Philadelphia County PA to save your property from a looming foreclosure.
What Are Philadelphia County Real Estate Taxes Used For?
Property taxes are the main source of funds for the city and other local governmental units. Along with the county, they rely on real estate tax revenues to perform their operations.
Pennsylvania counties rely on the real property tax to sustain governmental services. It typically accounts for the biggest piece of general revenues in these municipalities. All other service categories, including safety, hospitals, parks, buses/rail, and water/sanitation facilities, benefit from similar fiscal support.
Traditionally, local school districts are a major draw on real estate tax revenues. Other big-ticket items are local government worker salaries/benefits and public safety. Public protection with police and fire departments is a major consumer of general funds, also. Then there’s street construction and many other transportation demands. Water and sewage treatment facilities lead the way in sanitation problems, as well as hospitals in healthcare. Parklands, woodlands, playgrounds, and other recreation areas are built and maintained within the community. Often repeated, “It all adds up!”
How Are Property Taxes Handled at Closing in Philadelphia County?
Normally full-year real property levies are remitted upfront at the beginning of the tax year. That raises the question: who pays property taxes at closing when it occurs during the year? When buying a house, ownership is transferred from the seller to the buyer. And so does the responsibility for paying property levies. Thus, the new owner will be reimbursing the previous owner for the post-closing segment of the levy.
Most often those prorated tax prepayments won’t be transferred straight-through to sellers. Rather the lender, closing attorney, or escrow agent includes that prepaid tax with other purchaser financial responsibilities at closing.