These three organizations deal with various facets of your property taxes. Some counties combine these departments when they are smaller and don’t have a need for three separate organizations. All of the work begins with the Assessors Office, first in deciding what is assessable and then processing the valuation of that re-assessment and all of these determinations are made by your state law.
Assessments go through a procedure within the Office of the Assessor, to determine the value for that assessable event or assessment year. At the end of the fiscal year all of the values for the year are sent to the Auditor-Controller to apply the correct tax rate (percentage) to each parcel which varies in each tax rate area and determines the actual dollar amount you owe. The tax rate is set based on the area you live in and the local taxes applied to your local community in addition to the state levied taxes. The tax rate is usually a percentage of the value determined by the Assessor.
Also, if in a tax rate area has a special assessment or a direct assessment it is added by the Auditor-Controller. Finally the data is sent to the Tax Collector’s Office who distributes the bills, collects the money and deposits it in the County Treasury. These three departments compose the property tax branch of your county government and each handle their responsibilities separately.
For example, if you discovered you had a lien or delinquent taxes on your property, you need to go to the Tax Collector’s Office to pay them and have the lien lifted and the records brought up to date. However, if you had an issue with the amount of property taxes or the value in which your property taxes are based on you would contact the Office of the Assessor, because that is what the Office of the Assessor is responsible for. For example, if you had a value issue, you would go to your Assessor, and how to do this is detailed in both the California Little Black Book and also the National Little Black Book.
When the value is corrected by the Office of the Assessor it is sent to the Auditor-Controller’s Office who would correct the actual dollar amount owed, and then the Tax Collector’s Office corrects the bill and then your adjusted bill is generated. Normally, the two offices that handle public service are the Assessor and the Tax Collector, the Auditor-Controller’s Office is the silent partner of the property tax banch. Generally, public service is resolved before it gets to the Auditor-Controller’s Office and is requested by the Assessors Office.
This can be an intricate process and sometimes values are adjusted by the Office of the Assessor and somehow the actual bills sent out by the Tax Collector are not adjusted. This happens when the Auditor-Controller’s Office, for whatever reason has not adjusted the right bill or there was some sort of processing error. Remember all of these departments are mass processing organizations and they do the best they can however it is your responsibility to make sure that your values are accurate. When this happens a special request needs to be sent by the Office of the Assessor to have a particular value adjusted and then that will be forwarded to the Tax Collector’s Office who will issue a correct bill. Remember all issues can and will be resolved with a little bit of effort, education and patience.
About the Author: Valerie Faltas, Property Tax Expert has been involved in all facets of real estate for over ten years including assessments, appraisals, estates and trusts, investing and much more. She is a Certified Property Tax Appraiser, Licensed Residential Appraiser and a member of the International Association of Assessment Officers. As a real estate investor and adviser she is well versed in all aspects of real estate. To contact Valerie Faltas go to her website: www.propertytaxlittleblackbook.com