Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Sales tax holiday coming up Aug. 9-10


Shoppers in Georgia will have a chance late next week to purchase certain school supplies, computers, and clothing without paying sales tax. You can see a full list of what's eligible for the sales tax exemption at the state Department of Revenue's website. The sales tax in DeKalb County is normally 7 percent, so this is a good chance to save some money!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Residents' exemptions in 2013


The owners of 72 percent of the 7,092 residential properties in Decatur have a homestead exemption with the city in 2013.  The remaining 28 percent of residential properties do not have homestead exemptions.  There are a many possible reasons why no homestead exemption is claimed for a residential property:  it could be rented out, vacant, under development, owned by a company or bank, or the parcel may be too small to build a house (such as a rear or side lot that is just land).  Either the owner doesn't live at the property, it is not his or her primary residence, or he or she hasn't applied for the homestead exemption.

Of the residents who do have a homestead exemption, most of them just have the basic homestead exemption, meaning that they do not qualify for our age-based or income-based exemptions.

Six percent of residential property owners qualify for an age-based exemption (meaning they have reached the age of at least 65), but do not qualify for exemptions that requires a specific income in order to qualify.  Eight percent of residents qualify for exemptions that are based both on age and an income limit.


Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Decatur property tax resources


City Hall will be closed tomorrow for Independence Day.  The Revenue Division and all other non-public safety operations of the City will also be closed on Friday, July 5.

If need tax information during that time, please use our website at http://www.decaturgatax.com/ where you can look up tax records for any property within city limits.  The website also allows you to print a tax bill, a receipt, make a payment with a convenience fee, or access commercial sanitation accounts.  If you're having trouble finding a record, please be sure to look at the "Search Tips" box to the right of where you enter the information you're keying in.  The tips looks like this:


If you're searching by property ID, please use spaces but not hyphens.  If searching by address, do not use punctuation.  If you've tried those techniques without success, the property may not be in the City of Decatur.  Most Decatur properties have a ZIP code of 30030.

General information about Decatur's tax bills can also be found here.  If you also need information about a DeKalb County tax bill, which is a separate bill from Decatur's, you can visit http://web.co.dekalb.ga.us/TaxCommissioner/tc-home.html.