Update by Jimmie Covington:
The County Commission is moving toward increasing the certified rate by one-cent. Here is the impact of a $3.36 rate: Adopting a county tax rate one-cent above the certified rate would decrease the reappraisal increase breakeven point for homeowners from 17.4 percent to 17.1 percent. Taxpayers whose appraisal increase is more than 17.1 percent would pay higher taxes. Those whose increase is exactly 17.1 percent would pay the same taxes as the current year and those whose increase is less than 17.1 percent would pay lower taxes. The reappraisal increased the values of some homes 30 or 40 percent or more. At a $3.46 county tax rate, the tax increase on a home with a 40 percent appraisal increase would be 19.6 percent. A 30 percent reappraisal increase would mean an 11.1 percent property tax increase. To calculate the taxes on your home, divide the appraised value by 400 (or the assessed value by 100) and multiply the resulting number by the tax rate.
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This post is written by Jimmie Covington, veteran Memphis reporter with lengthy experience covering governmental, school, and demographic issues. He is a contributing writer with The Best Times, a monthly news magazine for active people 50 and older, where this article appears in its latest issue.
By Jimmie Covington
At the end of May, the property reappraisal impact on individual homeowners was becoming clearer.
If the County Commission and Memphis City Council adopt the state-approved certified property tax rates as their actual tax rates, the breakeven reappraisal increase would be 17.4 percent for county taxes and 17.7 percent for Memphis city taxes.
Homeowners who had higher reappraisal increases than 17.4 countywide and 17.7 percent in Memphis would pay higher taxes than in the past year.
Those whose reappraisal increases are those exact percentages would pay the same amount of taxes and people whose increases were less than those percentages would have tax cuts.
The reappraisal resulted in some homeowners having appraised value increases of 30 or 40 percent or higher. People in this category would have significant property tax increases at the certified tax rates which are designed to bring in the same amount of total revenue for the governments as they received in the past year.
Calculations show that at the county’s $3.45 certified tax rate, a homeowner with a 40 percent appraisal increase would have a 19.3 percent increase in county property taxes. A homeowner with a 30 percent increase would have 10.7 percent increase in taxes.
The current county property tax rate is $4.05 for each $100 of assessed value and the Memphis rate is $3.19. Property owners in Memphis and the suburban municipalities pay county property taxes as well and their municipal taxes.
Homeowners may calculate their taxes by dividing the appraised value by 400 (or dividing the assessed value by $100) and multiplying the resulting number by the tax rate.
Residential property is assessed at 25 percent of the market value that is determined by the Shelby County Property Assessor. Commercial property is assessed at 40 percent.
Assessor Melvin Burgess’ office is now receiving and reviewing requests from people who believe their appraisals have been incorrectly set to high. People who are not satisfied with the results of the reviews may appeal to the county Board of Equalization.
Officials of at least two suburban municipalities — Bartlett and Collierville – have taken actions on second readings to increase their municipal tax rates above their certified rates. Bartlett officials are moving toward a 24-cent property tax rate increase and Collierville officials have approved a 15-cent rate increase on the second of three readings.
