Property Tax Lawyers in Mercer Island
Laws of Mercer Island, Washington require all property owners to pay a tax on the value of their property. Property taxes exclusively apply to real property (as opposed to personal property). This encompasses land, buildings, and assets that are permanently or semi-permanently affixed to the land.
The property tax in Mercer Island, Washington is simply a percentage of a piece of property's appraised value, paid to the state and/or local government on a periodic - normally annual - basis.
The federal government almost never imposes property taxes directly. Property taxes are gathered nearly always by state, county, and local governments.
How Property Tax is Calculated in Mercer Island, Washington
Normally, Mercer Island, Washington property taxes are decided as a percentage of the property's value. Tax rates differentiate widely, but they usually run from less than 1% up to about 5%.
In order to impose this tax, the government of Mercer Island, Washington initially has to decide the taxable value of a piece of property.
As you probably know, value is not always objective. For example, the owners of family heirlooms normally place far more value on them than their objective monetary value. So tax officials have to be careful to only use objective criteria in valuing property for tax purposes.
To this end, the Mercer Island, Washington appraiser will look at things like the state of the real estate market, the size of the land, the existence of additions to the land such as buildings, and the way in which the property is zoned.
How A Mercer Island, Washington Property Tax Attorney Can Help.
The system of levying property taxes in Mercer Island, Washington can get very intricate. Disagreements about property taxes, between the taxpayer and the tax authorities, can come up in many different ways. A taxpayer may believe that an error was made in calculating their property's taxable value, resulting in bigger tax bill. Furthermore, the state or city government might allege that you have failed to pay your property taxes, while you believe that you have.
If you run into any issue with your Mercer Island, Washington property taxes, failing to handle it properly can result in anything from unnecessary inconvenience to massive fines and tax penalties. However, with the help of a Mercer Island, Washington tax attorney, your chances of running into a property tax problem can be minimized.