Lake Geneva Tax Time

Everything was going as planned. Thanksgiving dinner featured a juicy, perfectly cooked bird- a rarity in a Curry household that excels at baking but tends to err on the side of extreme caution when it comes to cooking duration of poultry- the corn was yellow, the sweet potatoes orange, and while the custard pie had been left to cook for a few minutes too long, desert was rescued by a 3 gallon tub of Zanzibar ice-cream that my older brother sourced from a Madison creamery the day before. We shot clay pigeons after lunch, and by shot I mean shot at, in the general direction of, choosing usually to grant the clay pigeon an eternal stay of execution. The next day, we played basketball in the high school gym, which is a bizarre occurrence that features old, fat, and slow siblings pretending that what it unfolding is anything but an absolute tragedy. Even that, with the fatness and the sweating and the clanking, it was fine.

Then, on Saturday, my mail came. There were coupons for this and some for that, and some invoices for things that I should probably pay. As I flipped through each piece, I hadn’t intended on yet seeing the last white envelope at the bottom of the pile- my tax bill. Walworth Township is where I live, and they must have been either more efficient than usual or they simply needed the money earlier this year, because the tax bill arrived in November. I opened it without delay, and while the bill wasn’t bad, relative to how bad it could have been, I view any tax as though it could, indeed, be a bit less. With Thanksgiving now out of the way and Christmas still in the offing, this week rings in the beginning of the Walworth County Tax Bill Season. There’s rarely anything jolly about it.

While you won’t be overly excited to receive your bill, now is the time for you to consider what you might do in order to lessen that bill next December. If you’re interested in stripping off half of your siding, not mowing your lawn for the entirety of next year, and allowing some neighborhood street toughs to launch a few stones through your front windows, that’s fine, but that’s not necessary. Lest you take what comes next as tax or legal advice, never forget that I am many things but a CPA and attorney I am not. This is how this is going to work:

Your tax bill will arrive in your mail. You will be dismayed. It doesn’t matter the amount, you will be dismayed. After your initial grief, consider what you need to do next. You need to pay the bill. Unless, let’s say, you live in Walworth Township and the township billed you for a fire call to put out a fire that never occurred, then you’ll pay the tax portion of the bill but leave out the fraudulent phantom fire call charge. Tax bill payed, look at your assessed and fair market value. How does it look? Knowing that, as an owner, you’ll believe your property value to be one number when it comes to selling and an entirely different number when it comes to taxable value, give it a good consideration. Is it close? Yes? No? It doesn’t matter, the next step is the same.

Look to the market conditions surrounding your Lake Geneva area home. Live in a condo? You have a four bedroom at Vista Del Lago? Cool. They have you assessed at $550k? Okay. Email me, ask for the sold comps for the past 12 months. I’ll give them to you, and you’ll be initially saddened when you see that no four bedroom units sold in 2014. But what did sell were some three bedroom units, and they sold for $400k. Your initial thoughts will be that the comps do not help you, but they do. Who couldn’t argue in front of an appeals boar that a bedroom isn’t worth $150k? I mean, a single bedroom for $150k? Your honor, this must be a mistake.

See how that works? But I’ve gotten ahead of myself, because I’ve already pushed you in front of the appeals board. If appeals boards met right after you received your tax bill, everyone with a bone to pick would show up to pick it, publicly. But the appeals process for tax assessments occurs sometime the following summer, depending on your municipality. By then, most owners have forgotten the December pain of that tax bill, unless you opt to pay your first half of the bill by January 31 and the second half by July 31, then that tax bill stays on your mind throughout the summer. But most simply pay their bill, opting to declare it on the tax return filed in the year the bill was received, not in the following year when the bill is actually due. When this happens, the Open Book review seems forever away, and is usually forgotten by any except those who have a significant tax gripe. Open Book Review is the mail in rebate of tax assessments- some do it, but most lose the receipt and forget to clip off the bar code.

This is why today, even before you receive your 2014 tax bill, you must make a note in your calendar. Pick a day in March and make a call to your municipality. Ask them if they’ve scheduled the open book reviews yet. If they have, schedule your protest appointment. If they haven’t, ask when they’re expecting them to be (usually in the summer months), and then make a note to follow up. If you miss the review period, you’re out of luck, and your non-complaint is a passive acceptance of your tax amount. If your assessment is below market value, terrific! Don’t say a word. If it’s near or above market value, do yourself a favor and shoot me an email. I’ll send you some comps that might support your claim, and you just might save some money. If strange people can camp in front of a Best Buy for a week to save $100 on a no-name television, then we can certainly remember to make a few calls to potentially save a whole lot more.

About the Author

I'm David Curry. I write this blog to educate and entertain those who subscribe to the theory that Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is indeed the center of the real estate universe. When I started selling real estate 27 years ago I did so of a desire to one day dominate the activity in the Lake Geneva vacation home market. With over $800,000,000 in sales since January of 2010, that goal is within reach. If I can help you with your Lake Geneva real estate needs, please consider me at your service. Thanks for reading.

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