When one purchases a property, if it is after January 1 of whatever tax year, the owner name of record as of January 1 will receive the assessment notice and the property tax bill. If a buyer closes out on the property say February 28 of that tax year, the seller is responsible for the first two months worth of taxes and the buyer is responsible for the rest of the year’s property taxes, which will be 10 months. The lawyer’s office will prorate all of this out and it will be listed on the HUD closing sheet.
Let’s say that the property the buyer is purchasing is a house that sells for $600,000. And let’s consider that the seller, had bought the house a couple of years earlier for $400,000 and then renovated the kitchen and the bathroom, and at the time of the sale, his fair market value for tax purposes was $400,000. After the buyer pays $600,000 for that house, the following year, his or her tax value / assessment is going to be put at the sale price, so his or her taxes are going to increase fifty percent.
Many people don’t do the due diligence when buying property, and then once they go to the closing and see that the taxes are “X” amount, they figure that the taxes will stay that amount and then all of a sudden the following year, they have to come up with the additional money for the taxes. So be sure and look up the tax value of whatever property one is buying and take in to consideration that the county assessor’s office will pick up the sale and place the tax value at the sale price.
If anyone has any questions or comments about property taxes, or property tax appeals, please email me at info@taxappealatlanta.com or call me, Rob Vinson, at 404-218-7874. Also, check out my website at www.taxappealatlanta.com
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