Many married couples own most of their assets as joint tenants with rights of survivorship (JTWROS) or by Tenants by the Entireties (a specific joint ownership between husband and wife). On the death of the first spouse, the surviving spouse often assumes that the property, whether real or personal, simply transfers to the surviving spouse.
5 Things You Can Do Now to Prepare for 2012 Property Taxes
In prior posts, we mentioned the basic timing of the property tax system in Florida. As a reminder, important dates to keep in mind are:
- January 1: all property in the State must be assessed based on its condition on that particular date (I like to call this the “snapshot photo” date);
- March 1: the general deadline to submit exemption applications;
- July 1: local property appraisers generally have their values determined;
- Mid-August: TRIM notices are mailed to inform property owners of their proposed assessment and tax bill for that year;
- September: 25 days from the date of mailing the TRIMs, the appeal period expires if you want to appeal through the Value Adjustment Board; and,
- November: taxes can be paid for the greatest discount.
Which begs the question, “what can I do now if I’m thinking about my property taxes but haven’t paid attention to these dates?” Here are 5 quick things you can be doing:
Continue Reading 5 Things You Can Do Now to Prepare for 2012 Property Taxes
Thoughts on Ad Valorem Assessment of Conservation Lands: A Conversation with George Wheeler
George Wheeler is a 30 year employee with the Florida Department of Revenue. He currently serves as IDP Administrator in Classified Use Administration. His responsibilities as Senior Appraiser at DOR include the areas of agriculture/greenbelt, conservation, and working waterfront.
Since a recent article in the Florida Land Development News about property taxation and potential exemptions, we have received numerous questions about the treatment of conservation lands for ad valorem taxation. We first ran into this issue some time ago, and had the pleasure of working with George Wheeler with the Florida Department of Revenue to determine the best option for the landowner in that case. For this blog post, we imposed on George again and he was kind enough to chat with us about this rather misunderstood area of property taxation.Continue Reading Thoughts on Ad Valorem Assessment of Conservation Lands: A Conversation with George Wheeler