Ultimate Union County Real Property Tax Guide for 2024

Guide Overview

With our resource, you will learn helpful facts about Union County real estate taxes and get a better understanding of what to expect when it is time to pay. Should you already be a resident, contemplating it, or maybe wanting to invest in Union County, read on to gain a grasp of what to anticipate.

Average Property Tax Rate in Union County

Based on latest data from the US Census Bureau

Union County Property Taxes Range

Union County Property Taxes Range

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Based on latest data from the US Census Bureau

You May Be Charged an Unfair Property Tax Amount

Perhaps you aren’t focused on your tax levy containing a higher figure than is warranted by your property’s real value. This possibility is real if understanding your property’s worth was probably determined collectively based on just a few onsite inspections in your community. Also, assessors’ offices occasionally make errors. With any possible wrong assessment, it’s time to quickly collect the facts and think about filing a formal protest.

If you’ve newly refinanced, be alert for erroneous double billings. Don’t fail to analyze your tax bill attentively. Every assessment is available to all viewers online. Contrast the appraised value with comparable neighborhood properties, especially newly sold. Study recent rises or drops in property selling price trends.

Should you suspect there’s been an overassessment of your tax bill, don’t delay. A no-brainer or conflicted whether to proceed with an appeal or not, don’t lose sleep. The only cost for many protest companies’ involvement will be a percentage of any tax decreases established. More details later.

What Is a Tax Protest Procedure?

You may appeal the county’s assessment of your property’s tax value if you believe it is greater than it ought to be. The county is the entity that assessed the real estate and it will consider your protest.

The forms you need and the process you’ll comply with are found at the county tax office or online. Take your time going over all the regulations before you begin. If you do not follow the process fully, your appeal might not be accepted.

Your tax notice will give you a time frame in which you are allowed to submit your appeal. If you don’t make that time frame, you may lose your right to protest the assessment.

You will be better prepared if you obtain a complete copy of the valuation report from the county. Your case may depend on this. You will have a stronger possibility of getting a new valuation of your property if mistakes were made in the assessment.

If you file a detailed package with supporting evidence, the county might make a decision without requiring that you proceed with an official appeal. If not, you will be required to appear before a review panel and present your protest in detail. You’re going to have to demonstrate that the tax value given to your property is wrong. High tax rates and strong property value growth in your neighborhood are not valid reasons to protest.

If you are sure that you have validated your case but the county did not agree, you can appeal their decision to your state’s assessment authority. If the case requires going to court, you may need help from one of the best property tax attorneys in Union County TN.

It is your right to protest your property’s tax valuation. Prior to doing so, consider what the assessment actually does to your yearly tax payment. Determine how much your real property tax bill will be with the higher value and any tax exemptions you qualify for. Reasonable real estate value appreciation will not boost your yearly payment enough to justify a protest.

How to Get Your Taxes Reduced for Free?

Often advisors doing these appeals charge payment on a contingent basis. Such an arrangement means the fee you pay is limited to a percentage of any tax savings. No savings in taxes means they receive no pay.

Protest companies are encouraged to fully dissect your billing, prepare for and take part in meetings, look for miscalculation, find forgotten exemptions, and get ready for any litigation. Appeals companies are often hired to specifically address numerous existing exemptions known to be particularly complicated and litigious.

Two established methods for appraisal revisions are mostly used to support protests. A re-appraisal frequently makes use of one of these methods, i.e. a “sales comparison” or an “unequal appraisal” evaluation. Both involving nearby real property, sales comparisons appraise market values utilizing recent sales data while unequal appraisals focus on appraisal disparity between similar real property.

Local independent appraisal firms that specialize in onsite evaluations often use the sales comparison method. Generally it’s a full appraisal of the subject property. Carried out by State-licensed appraisers, such reviews are almost incontrovertible. Only a thorough re-examination of the full appraisal procedure might possibly overturn the specialty firm’s revisions. E.g., four area similar buildings sold for $1,000,000 recently, however the contested property with $100K in wind damage now has a $900K revised value.

Major tax specialty firms frequently use unequal appraisal data even if current market values aren’t out of line. A localized list of well-matched properties having similar appraised market values is assembled. Then comes a comparison of these properties’ respective tax levy amounts within each group. Significant inconsistencies, (for example properties’ bills are higher by at least 10% of the sample median level) are identified for more analysis. Clients are usually charged a percentage applied to any tax decreases, so there’s no out-of-pocket cost or any fee at all without reaping some tax cutback.

Look for a company that works best for you in our list containing the best property tax protest companies in Union County TN.

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How Does Union County Real Estate Tax Work?

State statute provides several thousand local governmental units the right to assess real estate taxes. Yet taxpayers generally receive just one combined tax bill from the county. Each municipality then is allocated the tax it levied. There are three primary stages in taxing property, i.e., formulating levy rates, estimating property market worth, and receiving receipts.

Accorded by Tennessee law, the government of your city, public hospitals, and thousands of various special purpose districts are empowered to estimate housing market value, fix tax rates, and collect the tax. All of them are official governing entities administered by elected or appointed officials. These entities, for example public schools and hospitals, serve a specific territory, i.e. a county, township, school district, et al.

The state’s statutory rules and regulations have to be adhered to in the city’s handling of taxation. All property not eligible for exemption is required to be taxed evenly and uniformly on a single present market worth basis. Owners must also be given a reasonable notice of rate rises.

Within those confines, the city establishes tax rates. As will be covered further, estimating property, billing and taking in payments, conducting compliance measures, and resolving disagreements are all left to the county.

Union County performs real estate appraisals for cities and special public units. Tennessee also created instructions that Union County administrators are obliged to observe in evaluating real property. This is to ensure property appraisals are largely carried out uniformly. Evaluation approaches and precision matters are promising areas for likely challenges.

In the United States, three methods for estimating real estate value prevail (with additional slight differences). The Sales Comparison method entails contrasting present similar properties’ sale prices in the same neighborhood. The Income Capitalization method predicts present value predicated on the property’s expected income amount plus the property’s resale worth. One Cost Approach variation says a commercial property’s value could equal the present cost for a structure replication while accounting for depreciation and land value.

Normally every three years at a minimum a county assessor re-evaluates and determines whether to reset property’s estimated market value. That value is multiplied times a total tax rate, i.e. the sum of rates set by all associated governing entities. They range from the county to city, school district, and different special purpose entities such as water treatment plants, water parks, and property maintenance facilities.

Who and How Determines Union County Property Tax Rates?

According to Tennessee constitution, real estate appraisals are conducted by counties only. Any revenue ramification of that evaluation is prohibited from being a component in this procedure.

Under Tennessee taxation requirements, reexaminations must be done periodically. Usually new evaluations use a sweeping technique applied to all alike property in the same locality without individual property tours. Any individual property value reducers, e.g. structural cracks, will be passed over with you missing a potential tax scale-back.

In the beginning, when new homes and commercial buildings were built, appraisers compiled descriptive tax rolls. A tax roll describes by address all real estate within a specific locale. When constructed, buildings were categorized by such characteristics as structure kind, floor space, and age. Other inputs such as age and area were also considered when making up these groups by class, which then had market values assigned collectively. Now, without another checkup, using often outdated, possibly inaccurate descriptions — with only recent property sales figures being up-to-date — appraisers have to rely upon those collectively affixed estimated market values.

These general procedures are made mandatory to ensure equitable property market worth assessments. Because of this sweeping approach, it’s not just likely but also unavoidable that some market worth evaluations are in error. Many times this is a fertile territory to uncover appeal evidence!

With a total assessed taxable market value recorded, a city’s budget office can now determine needed tax rates. When totalled, the property tax load all taxpayers shoulder is created. This is mostly a budgetary exercise with entity directors first estimating yearly spending expectations. Next, it’s a question of establishing what tax rate will give rise to the required tax revenue. In theory, tax amount should be same as the total of all yearly funding.

Tennessee has a number of local governmental entities, including counties and special districts such as public schools, healthcare facilities, and sewer treatment districts. They all individually determine the needed tax levy to meet their budgeted expenditures. Under the county level, nearly all local governments have arranged for Union County to bill and collect taxes.

The budget/tax rate-setting process often involves traditional public hearings to debate tax issues and similar fiscal considerations. Further, note that by law, property owners can submit for a public vote should any proposed rate hikes exceed a figure.

Expressly stated under the state Constitution, taxing bodies, such as your city, have limits on hiking taxes. Tax rates can’t be raised prior to informing the public. Then a public hearing on any proposed increase should take place before it happens.

If Union County property tax rates have been too high for your wallet resulting in delinquent property tax payments, you can take a quick property tax loan from lenders in Union County TN to save your property from a looming foreclosure.

What Are Union County Real Estate Taxes Used For?

Money from property tax payments is the lifeblood of local community budgets. They’re a capital pillar for public services in support of cities, schools, and special districts, such as water treatment stations, fire safety services, transportation, etc.

These are some of the public services nearly all local governments typically provide. Tennessee relies on real estate tax revenues a lot. Not just for Union County and cities, but down to special-purpose units as well, like water treatment stations and recreational parks, with all dependent on the real property tax.

A big chunk of property tax payments goes toward district schools. Employment costs for government employees are also a large expenditure. Maintaining policing is another frequently discussed question in the area of public safety. Other burdensome responsibility are public transportation and street work, followed by upkeep and rebuilding. Another need is water and sanitation stations, as well as garbage removal. Parks, woodlands, sports facilities, and other leisure areas are built and maintained within the neighborhood. Often repeated, “It all adds up!”

How Are Property Taxes Handled at Closing in Union County?

Real estate taxes are generally prepaid for a full year of ownership. Then who pays property taxes at closing if buying a house in Union County? Real property ownership shifts from the seller to the buyer on closing. Buyers are now obligated to remit the tax. From that point, purchasers pay back sellers on a pro-rata basis.

Most often those prorated refunds aren’t transferred straight-through to former owners. Instead, tax reimbursements will be combined with all other responsibilities of the buyer at closing.